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The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of and the management of creative individuals in organizations.

The paper integrates concepts including a range of recently published (1995‐2006) theoretical works in the creative culture, creativity, and innovation literature.

The paper provides information and action approaches to marketers to aid them in harnessing creative talent within their organizations. Relevant literature shows that communities may be magnets that attract or repel creative individuals. Organizations can engineer themselves to become attractive to creatives. If marketers are skillful in managing creative individuals, the organization may enjoy increased competitiveness.

The theoretical concepts that form the foundation of the paper appear to have a significant application to consumer marketing but have not been tested empirically.

The study explores a global effect that has implications for the nature and scope of marketing orientation performance.

This paper describes the nature and application of creativity and creative culture to marketing. While most literature has concentrated on the city or community level, the paper provides a perspective that may help to nurture the creativity of individuals within an organization. It offers the potential of increasing marketing competitiveness by allowing firms to maximize their creativity as a competitive tool.

This paper aims to contend that four significant ideas must be comprehended, and their connection and interaction understood if successful marketing to the 4 to 5 billion undeserved bottom of the pyramid (BOP) people in the world, by multinational firms is to be realized. These ideas are: the bottom of the pyramid (BOP) market itself; share of the heart versus consumer animosity; the nature and influence of global “umbrella” brands and responsible marketing as a guiding principle for all firms including those focusing on the BOP. Each of these ideas, in and of itself, represents an important dimension in today's global business environment, but taken together they offer a clearer understanding of how companies, particularly multinational companies, can do well (profit) and do good (improve humanity).

The paper briefly overviews the BOP literature, highlighting those parts most relevant to this work; expands upon the notion of “share of heart” and its twin components consumer affinity and consumer animosity; delineates the nature and impact of global “umbrella” brands in BOP marketing; synopsizes the notion of “responsible marketing” in the BOP context, and proposes a conceptual scheme of how these ideas are connected, how they interact in today's business world, and how they can lead to ongoing business success.

Mutlinational firms (MNFs) wishing to successfully pursue BOP markets need to blend their understanding of BOP uniqueness, with a clear understanding of the other three concepts, namely share of heart, gobal umbrella brands and responsible marketing. Tapping the potential of the BOP requires not only radicallly lowered priced products but also consumers with higher income. Marketers must address both parts of the problem since acting on either in isolation will not be effective.

Global umbrella brands of the rich world (BrandAmerica, EuroBrand, BrandNippon, etc.) must also play a part in successful BOP marketing. The future of such global umbrella brands lies to a great degree with BOP markets as these markets are still growing, and thus represent and will continue to represent either enormous partners or enormous rivals. MNFs that truly understand the nature, scope and potential of BOP markets, and act in concert to market responsibly to consumers in such markets, will not only garner the needed share of heart related to long‐term success in such markets, but will see their own global umbrella brand continue to thrive and prosper in the ever evolving global market arena.

This paper seeks to explore the relationship between global brands and the emotional connections between consumers and the brand.

The paper integrates concepts including a range of recently published (1995‐2006) theoretical works in the branding, global branding, and share of heart literature.

The paper provides information and action approaches to marketers to aid them in managing the emotional ties of global brands to specific market segments. The term “global brand” is used extensively in business but its nature and scope are not understood by all. Global brands are few in number and must satisfy several criteria to be considered truly global. This study explores the requirements for global branding as well as the characteristics and advantages of global brands. Brands may be considered in two dimensions based on their acceptance by consumers. One dimension is the brand's deliverable benefits relevant to its target segment. The other is the type and depth of emotional connection between the consumer and the brand. The article reviews the state of global branding and types of emotional connections. It then postulates a series of actions to build share of heart to aid in taking brands global.

The theoretical concepts that form the foundation of the paper appear to have a significant application to consumer marketing but have not been tested empirically.

The paper explores a global phenomenon that has implications for the nature and scope of market segmentation, product design and promotion.

The paper describes the nature and application of emotional connections to particular brands. While most literature has concentrated on local or national brands, the paper provides a perspective that may help to understand how global brands generate emotional ties to consumers.

The value and supply chain is an emerging pathway to marketing's emphasis on customers. It integrates a renewed focus on customer value and the economic and behavioral systems of the supply chain. Successful value chains can be developed with emphasis on the four practices that drive a customer orientation. These are: relationships, interactivity, valuing customers over time, and customization. When properly integrated, these practices help to form networks operating as a competitive unit. This paper clarifies the role of value in the value chain, discusses the use of the four major elements in the value chain, and draws implications for marketers.

The purpose of this paper is to present a strategic framework to managing online loyalty.

The paper integrates concepts including a range of recently published (1993‐2006) theoretical works in consumer loyalty and ongoing case developments in internet practice.

Provides information and action approaches to consumer marketers that may increase the success providing want satisfying market offerings. Outlines the costs and benefits of some online customer loyalty building practices. By integrating the literature supporting lifetime customer value with the literature concerned with generating online customer relationships, it provides a pathway to profitable relationships. It also exposes the unintended problems that some online customer loyalty initiatives may create.

The theoretical concepts that form the foundation of the paper appear to have a significant application to consumer marketing but have not been tested empirically.

Uncovers a previously unreported strategy for generating profitable online customer loyalty.

This paper describes the nature and application of customer value tiers to an important marketing process. It offers the potential of increasing marketing success by allowing firms to maximize the value of their scarce service resources by serving profitable customers.

The objective of this paper is to develop a better understanding of brand engagement by examining two of its antecedents: design benefits and consumer emotions. The authors explore the relationship between design and brand engagement and advance a model with emotional responses as mediator.

This paper integrates a range of theoretical works across design and marketing, including concepts of product design, types of design benefits, brand engagement, and brand communities.

The authors propose a conceptual model where emotional arousal, which differs across design benefits, mediates the relationship between design benefits and brand engagement. Brand engagement intensifies with emotional arousal as design benefits change from functional, to hedonic, to symbolic.

The conceptual model proposed in this paper can have significant applications in the areas of product design, branding strategies, and brand communications. However, it has not been tested empirically.

The resulting model improves understanding of how marketers can use design to elicit different forms of brand engagement. Implications for marketers include planning brand engagement outcomes early in the product or service development process; involving consumers in that process, clearly communicating the benefits of the design; and supporting venues where brand engagement of different types can be practiced.

Brand engagement is unique brand-related behavior that has received limited attention in the design and marketing literatures. The proposed model offers a look at brand engagement from a design perspective, while emphasizing the role of consumers' emotional responses to design benefits.

Looks at recent product development literature which cites the improving but troubling success rates of newly introduced products and recommends integrating customer input as early as possible. Notes that, while companies have adopted cross‐functional product development teams, integrating customer input is uncommon. Suggests that, to increase product success consumers and other external information sources should be part of idea generation and should provide input throughout the rest of the product development process. Highlights several problems that exist which interfere with achieving that integration: many firms are not structured to gather, disseminate and exploit consumer preference data or their surrogates; and it is difficult to identify consumers who could provide ongoing interactive input. Reviews the relevant learning organization literature and relates it to the new product development process. Explores the successful lead user technique used in industrial marketing, describes its important components, and proposes a potentially useful extension ‐ boundary‐spanning product development teams. Describes boundary‐spanning product development teams which are composed of internal cross‐functional members and external members selected from suppliers, retailers and consumers.

With the astounding growth of the Internet, the potential threats to consumer privacy have grown exponentially. Much of the threat lies hidden beneath the view of the average consumer. Information technology makes collecting potentially sensitive information automatic and unseen. Indeed, it is the job of marketers to collect salient information to ensure refining products and services to foster consumer satisfaction. The paper explores the issues surrounding the protection of consumer privacy and delineates a means by which the interests of both consumers and the organizations that serve them can be enhanced while protecting consumer privacy.

The paper aims to track the development of service dominant logic (SDL) applied to brand management and highlights its essential elements. The paper attempts to extend the application of SDL to a form that makes the consumer part of the development process, a solution dominant approach.

The paper reviews the literature and suggests how brand managers can use service concepts, based on service‐dominance logic, to develop their new and differentiated products. The key is the relationship that customers develop with products, not the providers of those products, and how technology contributes to these linkages. This view, termed solution dominant, extends service dominant thinking. The paper also elaborates on the events and developments that have moved product development more firmly in the direction of relationships. Finally, it re‐examines some of the techniques that product developers use from a relationship perspective.

The relationship is the most important element in brand management. Relationships can take many forms based on the partners. While brand managers have traditionally focused on the relationship of the consumer with the brand, other relationships exist and are important. The internet has made it possible for consumer‐to‐consumer relationships to flourish. That presents both a challenge and opportunity for brand managers. Finally, an impending technological change reveals the potential importance of another relationship, consumer to thing (like a software application) which can build a bond, a relationship, between the consumer and a brand. The last logical possibility, thing‐to‐thing relationships already exist and their importance to brand managers is covered.

Service dominant logic and a focus on relationships has already been applied to brand management with success. It helps to refine the practice of branding. Consideration of a solution dominant logic, may help refine the practice further.

While service dominant logic has been applied to brand management, solution dominant logic, in which the consumer is part of the product/service design process has not been.

Reviews recent marketing literature which cites the troubling success rates of newly introduced consumer products and recommends integrating consumer input as early as possible, arguing that, specifically, consumers and other external information sources should be part of idea generation and should provide input throughout the rest of the product development process. Discusses several problems which interfere with achieving that integration. Looks at the relevant learning organization literature and relates it to the new product development process. Explores the successful lead‐user technique used in industrial marketing, and describes its important components. Proposes a potentially useful analog for consumer products, and boundary spanning consumer product development teams, which are composed of internal cross‐functional members and external members selected from suppliers, retailers and consumers.