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Selecting the most effective leveraging methods is crucial for national Olympic sponsors, who have limited time to achieve their sponsorship objectives. This paper presents the Optimal Leveraging Activity (OLA) model, which suggests that leveraging activities for high involvement products/services should primarily focus on enhancing brand image, knowledge and involvement, while for low involvement products/services a more sales-oriented approach is favourable. The leveraging activities of four Grand National Sponsors of the Athens Olympic Games illustrate the differences.

Originates from a research project which aims to investigate the potential for “intelligent” computer models as decision‐support tools, with particular emphasis on strategic analysis. Describes field work carried out with the intention of validating the working models which have been developed. The fieldwork produced a number of useful suggestions whereby the particular model could be enhanced, as well as demonstrating the potential for applying intelligent models in practice.

Concerns about underage drinking have led to calls for a UK ban on alcohol sponsorship of sport. Such a ban would have severe financial consequences for many sports, so should not be implemented without thorough consideration of its likely effectiveness. This study investigating the alcohol consumption intentions of 14 and 15 year olds showed that boys who were involved in sport were more likely both to drink alcohol and to get drunk, with awareness of sponsorship enhancing the likelihood of these behaviours. Girls involved in sport, however, showed more negative attitudes than their peers towards alcohol. It is argued that boys involved in sport are socialised into a traditional masculine alcohol and sports culture, which is reinforced by sponsorship. Evidence from studies on tobacco sponsorship suggests that health-related marketing communications and the use of low-alcohol or non-alcohol brands for sports sponsorship could be more effective than a ban in changing the culture.

Although it was predicted that bank branches would quickly become obsolete in a computerized society, the reality is that many full‐service branches are not closing but rather evolving to meet changing needs. The role of the branch manager is crucial, and is also changing. In particular, managers are expected to take a lead in marketing activities. A questionnaire study was carried out to examine managers’ changing roles, using two samples of branch managers, one from Canada and one from Spain. Managers were asked to rate 21 function variables on their importance in bank management and in facing new market trends. Differences were found between the two samples, as were similarities: both identified managerial ability, strategic autonomy of the branch and business development through increased marketing ability, as important building blocks for the future role of branches and their managers.

This paper uses a neural network to analyse the interactive effects of strategic planning on hotel performance. Based on the data collected from 100 hotel units the constructs of planning sophistication and planning thoroughness have direct positive effect on overall performance. Conversely, the degree of planning formality and rigidity )even if it is following a market‐led orientation) can hamper overall performance.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between perceived susceptibility to alcohol retailers' sales promotion strategies and young, female university students' intention to buy alcohol and attitude towards alcohol consumption.

Data were collected from a convenience sample of three universities in three OECD countries with high alcohol consumption per capita: Australia (n=305), Germany (n=323) and Wales (n=361). A self‐administered survey approach was used to collect data from female university students between the ages of 18 and 24 years in one university in each country. The four alcohol sales promotion strategies of interest were price reductions, quantity specials whereby the more you buy the less you pay on a pro rata basis, bulk purchasing of alcohol, and purchasing from more than one store to take advantage of low prices.

The study found that except for retailer price reductions, the association between Welsh university students' intentions to buy alcohol and their susceptibility to the remaining retailers' sales promotions was greater than that of university students in Australia and Germany, respectively. Significant differences between the countries were found in terms of the salience of perceived susceptibility to retail sales promotion strategies and their correlation with students' attitude towards alcohol consumption.

The paper's findings provide insights particularly for upstream, legislative strategic interventions to combat the issue of alcohol drinking of young female university students.

This paper is designed to set the scene in terms of introducing the methodological framework used in the academic “think tank” in marketing held at Lake of Menteith in Scotland in 1999. Some important academic insights and considerations are discussed at the outset with regard to the evaluation of future impacts on the multiple facets of the marketing discipline, although the amount and quality of dedicated academic research in this area has been limited. The new role of the marketing function and new customer market structures are debated, followed by a discussion of the intrinsic capabilities of scenario planning, as an environmental forecasting technique. Furthermore, we analyse the contribution of knowledge based systems to scenario planning and describe the design/development of an expert system at the Lake of Menteith gathering.

As the financial services marketplace becomes increasingly competitive, many banks and building societies are experimenting with the use of knowledge based systems (also known as expert systems). BANKSTRAT is a prototype system designed to advise on marketing strategy for retail banks/building societies. It was developed using the expert system shell LEONARDO, and demonstrated to potential users (marketing managers/ directors) in 16 banks and building societies in order to validate its rule base of advice, generate further rules, and gain feedback on how it could be extended to become a useful working model. In the majority of cases respondents agreed with advice given. Criticisms mainly centred on the model′s lack of sophistication, and many useful suggestions were made for improvement. Seventy‐five per cent of respondents believed that a fully developed version of BANKSTRAT could be of use to their company. Further developments would need to be tailored specifically to the user organization.

The purpose of this study is to understand the effect of price promotions, venue and place of residence on low‐risk, risky and high‐risk alcohol consumption behaviour of young women between 18 and 24 years of age who attend university in Australia, Wales and Germany.

The quantitative, self‐administered questionnaire collected data from a convenience sample of three universities in three OECD countries with high alcohol consumption being: a regional Australian university (n=305), a city Welsh university (n=354) and a rural German university (n=325).

First, the multinomial logistic regression results revealed that price promotions and venue influenced alcohol consumption in Wales alone while place of residence influenced alcohol consumption in Australia; however, price promotions, venue and place of residence had no effect on young women attending university in Germany. Second, the binomial logistic regression results for Wales reported a sensitivity to price promotions for all three alcohol consumption risk classifications; however, location was of little consequence to risky drinkers when compared to high risk drinkers. For Australia, the place of residence did not influence alcohol consumption for both risky and high‐risk drinkers.

The value of this study lies in the examination of three levels of alcohol consumption – low‐risk, risky and high‐risk – for the same cohort across three countries using the same test instrument and standard alcohol consumption metrics. As such, this study provides a more meaningful macro view of alcohol consumption; thus has the capacity to contribute to effectual intervention strategies.

Shows how neural networks can bring together psychometric and econometric approaches to the measurement of attitudes and perceptions. Uses a neural network to analyse data collected from a sample of ATM users on their perceptions of ATM service. Uses the weights of connections from input nodes to hidden nodes to label the hidden nodes to represent particular respondent attitudes. Uses the network to analyse the impact of explanatory (input layer) variables on the hidden layer attributes, and through these on the endogenous (output layer) variables ‐ satisfaction with ATMs, likelihood of recommendation to others, extent and frequency of use. Defines four user types, characterized as “disaffected youth”, “technophobes”, the “pro‐technology” segment, and the “cost conscious” segment. Gives some ideas on how banks could address the needs of each segment.