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After completing this case study, students will be able to understand the issues firms, brands and influencers face due to sponsorship disclosure regulation and the impact of self-regulation on firms engaging in influencer marketing, explain the challenges regulators face in ensuring compliance in an emerging market, explain Advertising Standard Council of India (ASCI)’s challenges in adopting influencer guidelines from emerged markets and recommend ethical theory (or theories) and strategies to firms engaged in influencer marketing.

This case study centers on Mr Manish Chowdhary, co-founder of WOW Skin Science, who started the beauty and personal care business with his brother Karan Chowdhary in 2015 in Bangalore, India. The company successfully built its brand through influencer marketing but faced challenges after the ASCI implemented new influencer guidelines. On May 31, 2021, he expressed disagreement with ASCI guidelines during an interview with Akansha Nagar from Buzz in Content, particularly the requirement to label every product or service received by influencers as an advertisement. He expressed concern about certain rules, fearing they might harm organic content and reduce viewership and followers. Subsequently, ASCI registered noncompliance cases against the company and communicated with them about complaints regarding influencer guideline violations. In this situation, Manish needed to evaluate his decision on noncompliance with regulation and required an action plan to strategically manage its influencer marketing campaign by incorporating ASCI’s guidelines. Overall, this case study highlights the journey of WOW Skin Science and its challenges with self-regulatory authorities over its influencer marketing strategy in an emerging market. Additionally, students can gain insight into the marketing communication ethics of a startup operating in an emerging market by embodying the protagonist’s role.

This case study is suitable for postgraduate level students pursuing a Master of Business Administration program. The difficulty level ranges from moderate to complex. It fits well into integrated marketing communication and marketing strategy courses. This case study discusses marketing ethics, advertising and promotion regulation.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 8: Marketing.

After completion of the case study, students will be able to enumerate the unique characteristics of business-to-business (B2B) versus business-to-consumer marketing, explore strategic positioning and how niche marketing can create a competitive advantage, deduce the significance of core values in corporate culture and decision-making, explore innovative partnership and talent acquisition models, infer the role of educational marketing in sectors where clients are not fully aware of their needs and apply strategic decision-making to balance short- and long-term goals in terms of profitability and growth.

This case study tells the story of BarkB2B, a boutique marketing firm specialized exclusively in B2B marketing. Founded in Egypt in 2018, BarkB2B focused on creating long-lasting partnerships with clients in industries such as IT, logistics, construction and renewable energy. The case explores the critical aspects of BarkB2B’s business model and offers a comprehensive view of real-world challenges and opportunities in the B2B marketing landscape. It helps learners understand strategic positioning, core values in decision-making, innovative partnership-based business models, the role of educational marketing and the complexities associated with growth. It concludes by highlighting the dilemma faced by BarkB2B’s founder and managing director Naela Sakr as she reflects on the challenge of maintaining the company’s positioning while achieving greater profitability and growth.

The case study is intended for undergraduate and graduate students in marketing, strategic marketing, consumer behavior and entrepreneurship courses. It is also beneficial for marketing professionals, entrepreneurs, corporate training and executive education programs.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 8: Marketing.

Prior research has advanced several explanations for social media influencers' (SMIs’) success in the burgeoning computer-mediated marketing environments but leaves one key topic unexplored: the moderating role of SMIs in service failure and recovery strategies.

Drawing on a social constructivist perspective and an inductive approach, 59 in-depth interviews were conducted with millennials from three European countries (Italy, France and the United Kingdom). Building on social influence theory and commitment-trust theory, this study conceptualises four distinct pathways unifying SMIs' efforts in the service failure recovery process.

The emergent model illustrates how source credibility and message content moderate service failure severity and speed of recovery. The insights gained from this study model contribute to research on the pivotal uniqueness of SMIs in service failure recovery processes and offer practical explanations of variations in the implementation of influencer marketing. This study examines a perspective of SMIs that considers the cycle of their influence on customers through service failure and recovery.

The study suggests that negative reactions towards service failure and recovery are reduced if customers have a relationship with influencers prior to the service failure and recovery compared with the reactions of customers who do not have a relationship with the influencer.

This study adopts the elaboration likelihood model and configuration perspectives to explore the internal mechanisms underlying the influence of live streaming on consumer trust building and purchase intention.

This study invited 757 experienced live streaming e-commerce users from Chinese platforms such as TikTok and RED, who participated in survey by filling questionnaires collected online. The research employed a mixed-method approach using SEM and fsQCA. SEM was utilized to analyze quantitative data to determine the direct and mediated relationships within product trust, while fsQCA served as a complement to identify the combinations of conditions that enhance product trust.

The findings reveal three important insights. Firstly, in the context of live streaming e-commerce, both product characteristics and streamer characteristics significantly influence consumers' trust in products. The para-social interaction plays a partial mediating role in the relationship between streamer characteristics and product trust. Secondly, four distinct paths are identified that contribute to enhancing product trust in live streaming e-commerce. Thirdly, PSI emerging as a core condition across all four paths, underscores the importance for merchants to foster positive social interactions with consumers beyond the live streaming environment.

This study enhances understanding of the dynamic live streaming e-commerce industry, offering insights into consumer behavior and practical guidance for merchants seeking to build engaged, trustworthy customer relationships.

The purpose of this study is to address the surging reliance on influencer marketing in evolving business models, focusing on a novel approach – the influencer e-commerce storefront. This study investigates various influencer advertising disclosures, social media activities and their impact on consumer engagement and sales within the influencer e-commerce storefront.

Secondary data was collected on 734 influencers from an e-commerce website based on “influencer” storefronts, and the influencer’s social media activity and content were collected from Instagram. Two-stage seemingly unrelated regression model was used to examine the research model.

Influencer social media use, encompassing daily posts, story posts and average comments, positively influences consumer engagement and sales on influencer e-commerce storefronts. Notably, the study reveals that different advertising disclosure languages yield varying effects. Unclear disclosures (e.g. branded Highlights) positively impact engagement and sales, while obvious disclosures (e.g. “Sponsored Ad”) negatively affect both.

The study contributes to Persuasion Knowledge Theory, examining influencer e-commerce storefronts and revealing the persuasive impact of undisclosed language in advertising. This study innovatively explores the effects of obvious and undisclosed sponsorship on coping mechanisms, offering insights into consumer reactions. The recommended use of undisclosed language suggests that ambiguity can enhance ad persuasion, guiding practitioners in crafting more effective messages. Moreover, the study extends co-creation theory and service-dominant logic by underscoring the significance of influencers’ social media engagement in co-creating value for consumers. Influencers’ active engagement on social media fosters co-creation, strengthening connections and boosting consumer loyalty.

Given the contradictory findings of standardization/adaptation of marketing strategy in explaining export performance in the extant research, this study aims to examine the contingent effects of managerial ties and born global orientation in the standardized advertising-export performance conceptualization.

The study used two-respondent method in the survey research by a sample of 155 exporting firms operating in the industrial marketing based in Australia and New Zealand and applied hierarchical regression analysis to test the hypotheses.

The findings demonstrate that standardized advertising has a significant effect on export performance and this relationship is positively moderated by business ties. Such effect is particularly enhanced for born global firms (than nonborn global firms). However, political ties negatively influence the impact of standardized advertising on performance and such effect is stronger for born global firms.

A broader perspective of contingent variables should be included to examine the underlying relationship between standardized advertising and export performance in capturing the dynamism in international marketing contexts, such as institutional frameworks or sociocultural environments in host countries.

Standardized advertising is critical for born global firms’ export performance as it can increase efficiency and speed up internationalization processes. Such positive impact of standardized advertising on export performance is further enhanced if born global firms allocate resources to develop strong business ties with host country partners instead of building political ties with host country governments, because smooth business networking can facilitate standardized advertising on industrial marketing, yet justifiable political relations require intricate negotiations that often prolong internationalization progress.

This study incorporates managerial ties and born global orientation as contingent factors in fixing the theoretic interlock between standardization advertising strategy and export firm performance.

In online exchange platforms' sponsored search advertising, the array of product quality signals within a keyword search results list plays a crucial role in shaping buyers' purchasing decisions. This research seeks to explore the impact of various quality signals – namely, ranking position, seller reputation and product price – on ad clicks. Additionally, it examines the role of keyword attributes, such as specificity and popularity, in modulating the effects of these quality signals on advertising clicks.

A total of 5,763 effective data points were collected from a leading B2B electronic platform company, and we employed negative binomial regression with Heckman correction methods to test the hypotheses.

The results indicate that in online exchange platforms, search ad clicks are significantly and positively affected by displayed signals such as ranking position, seller reputation and product price information. Notably, a U-shaped relationship emerges between product price and ad clicks. Furthermore, keyword specificity and popularity distinctly moderate the impact of these displayed signals on ad clicks within online exchange platforms.

This paper addresses the gap in existing research on search advertising by methodically analyzing the impact of various signals displayed in search results and how keyword attributes moderate ad clicks, all through a signaling theory lens.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the influences of positive-framed and negative-framed green advertising on pro-environmental WTP. This study also explores the impacts of regulatory focus, environmental concern and pleasant level on green advertising effectiveness.

Data are collected from a within-participant between-group online experiment in China. The generalized estimating equation (GEE) is employed to investigate the impact of green advertising on WTP. Grouped regression and mediation analyses are conducted to explore the influences of regulatory focus, environmental concern and pleasure on advertising efficacy.

The experimental outcomes indicate that green advertising significantly increases participants’ pro-environmental WTP, and negative-framed advertising is more effective than its positive-framed counterpart. Prevention focus heightens receptivity to green advertising, and the relation of environmental concern to advertising effectiveness is inverted U-shaped. Pleasure mediates the effect of green advertising on the WTP, and this mediating role is influenced by emotional intensity when advertising is negatively framed.

Evidence suggests that green advertising may propel pro-environmental WTP by raising environmental awareness, but such a relationship remains severely understudied. As such, this study pioneers in exploring the impact of different-framed green advertising on pro-environmental WTP, extending the concept of green advertising to environmental management. By considering the influences of regulatory focus, environmental concern and pleasure, this study raises practical implications for designing green advertisements, such as increasing the usage of visual elements.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of design features in in-feed advertising on its effectiveness. Previous research on various forms of advertising has demonstrated that design features can influence advertising effectiveness. However, given the distinct presentation mode and content of in-feed advertising compared to traditional forms, it is crucial to examine whether the effects of design features differ for this type of advertising. Through two studies, we examined how five specific design features affect consumers' purchase intention within the context of in-feed advertising. The mediating role of perceived value and the moderating role of product involvement are also proved.

Using the methods of online survey and online experiment, the author conducted two empirical studies. In study 2, the authors adopted the orthogonal array design to simplify experimental grouping.

The findings demonstrate that akin to conventional Internet advertising, the informational content, credibility and entertainment value of in-feed advertising exert a positive influence on its efficacy. Notably, the interactive nature of in-feed advertising significantly enhances users' inclination toward making purchases. Conversely, any form of interference can detrimentally impact its utility.

The study demonstrates five design characteristics that may impact the effectiveness of in-feed advertising, expanding the relevant theories about in-feed advertising. At the same time, this study contributes to the understanding of consumer responses to advertising. However, the two studies in this paper are conducted within the framework of WeChat, a popular Chinese social media platform, with the participants consisting exclusively of Chinese users.

Considering the rapid development of in-feed advertising in terms of quantity, content and form, the author believes that the results of this paper can help advertisers in their design thinking. The moderating effect of product involvement can be applied to optimize personalized advertising delivery schemes.

This paper focuses on a practical problem, that is, how to improve the effectiveness of in-feed advertising by modifying advertising design features.

Running advertising campaigns and attracting the traffic, as well as collecting information from users who have entered the website once, provides the conditions to perform retargeting campaigns and consequently increases website visit rates and sales. The purpose of this research is to design a roadmap of retargeting campaign for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), as well as to compare normal and retargeting advertising campaigns in order to confirm the effectiveness of retargeting campaigns.

A single-case-study strategy was adopted by choosing advertising Company-X to design the roadmap of retargeting campaigns and evaluate its effectiveness. Using a purposive sampling, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 experts of advertising Company-X. Furthermore, the documents and reports available in the company were also analyzed. Thematic analysis was employed to analyze the interviews and documents. Next, a one-way ANOVA test and a two-sample t-test were used to measure the effectiveness of retargeting campaigns of the Company-X compared to normal campaigns with secondary data of 22 SMEs for a six-month period.

The qualitative phase led to the presentation of a roadmap for the retargeting campaigns in three stages: preparation, process and implementation. The results of the quantitative phase revealed that the ratio of clicks to impressions (click-through rate) and the ratio of successful purchase tags to clicks (conversion rate) are much higher in the retargeting product campaign. Therefore, the performance of selected SMEs as an example in the product retargeting campaign was better than that of the non-retargeting campaigns. Also, the ratio of cost to the successful purchase tag was higher for the product retargeting campaigns.

This study contributes to the literature of retargeting. First, this study provides SMEs with a successful roadmap for retargeting campaigns. Second, this research reveals the effectiveness and mechanism of retargeting for SMEs.