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The purpose of this paper is to create a new understanding of industrial business-to-business (B2B) relationships by connecting the theoretical streams of marketing communications and relationship marketing. This study tests how various marketing communication channels and communication quality increase the transformation of customer-perceived value into customer loyalty.

The theoretical framework consists of links between customer-perceived value, marketing communication quality, channel effectiveness, and customer loyalty. The age of the business relationship is also taken into consideration. Empirical testing is based on global survey data (n=121) collected from customers of Finnish manufacturing companies operating in the paper, mineral, and metal-processing industries.

The effects of customer-perceived value on customer loyalty are both direct and indirect, as marketing communications partially mediate this relationship. The customer-perceived effectiveness of various marketing communication channels adds more to loyalty formation than the perceived quality of marketing communications.

Of special interest for marketing practitioners is the channel-specific approach to the effectiveness of marketing communications. Results suggest that personalized channels would be the most important mediators of the effects of perceived value on loyalty and also bring up the possibility of combining personalized direct communication with new cost-effective digital channels.

Relatively little research has examined the mediating role of marketing communications in the relationship between perceived value and loyalty in the B2B context.

Argues that the general area of commercial sponsorship activity, while attracting increasing interest from marketing practitioners as an important strategic option in marketing communications, has not been the subject of sufficiently rigorous and comprehensive investigation by theoreticians. States the purpose is to establish and consolidate the available body of knowledge combining an overview of the standard conceptual approaches to marketing communication with an examination of the recent academic research in sponsorship, while maintaining a focus on current marketplace practice. Argues for a coherent and structured approach to the management of sponsorship expenditure through the application of a ‘management by objectives’ approach. Parameters are established in terms of a working definition of sponsorship, a review of its commercial development and an overview of current activity. Develops a commercially ration framework within which sponsorship activity may be undertaken. Views objective‐setting as the cornerstone of sponsorship management and outlines a classification of sponsorship objectives that subsumes current practice clarifies the range of potential benefits. Examines the criteria that govern rational sponsorship selection and proposes an evaluation strategy based on stated criteria. Methods of evaluating effects of marketing communications (sponsorship particularly) are examined and new evaluation techniques are advanced to facilitate the implementation of this rigorous scientific approach.

The purpose of this study is threefold: To compare many old and new media channels in terms of a range of attributes such as perceived intrusiveness, reliability, trustworthiness, convenience, and entertainment value. To compare the perceived relative effectiveness of alternative communication channels in terms of how a marketing proposition is evaluated by recipients and thus to establish whether some channels are better than others for achieving engagement and persuasion. To additionally survey the senders of marketing communications, to examine potential differences between how senders think recipients perceive each channel and what recipients actually perceive. Moreover, it is proposed that the survey be conducted in both consumer and business markets.

First, in a survey, the channels are compared from the perspective of both receivers and senders of marketing communications and additionally from that of consumer and business markets. Second, by means of experimentally generated scenarios, the paper assesses the relative effectiveness of the 11 channels in eliciting responses to two typical B‐to‐C and two B‐to‐B promotion offers.

The paper finds that, although e‐mail is well established and widely used, the traditional channels of television, radio, newspapers and direct mail retain their historically favored attributes of trust and reliability of information that make them still preferred by consumer recipients of marketing communications, even by “tech savvy” younger consumers who use e‐mail and SMS extensively. Business receivers are more accepting of e‐mail marketing communications than are consumers but, like consumers, they are more likely to act on a marketing offer if it comes through traditional mass media or mail channels.

The paper enables marketing managers to assess the relative benefits of a number of marketing communication channels.

Explores the nature and potential of marketing communications in hypermedia, and assesses the role of computer‐mediated communication to assist the marketing communications mix. The activities of one company (MCB UP Ltd) are reviewed, as it develops its Web site towards a high value‐added, effective and integrated marketing communications environment. Explains why Internet marketers must provide high value‐added Internet resources, allowing communication both with and between players in the organisation’s supply chain. The impact of computer‐mediated “connectivity” and “interactivity” is discussed in terms of the effectiveness of Web‐based marketing communications. Commercial opportunities for capitalising on the marketing potential of “virtual communities” are identified. Examples of how such communities may be created and sustained are presented.

This paper examines how social marketing communication messages influence physical activity attitudes when a health organization is revealed as the message source.

This paper examines how social marketing communication messages influence physical activity attitudes when a health organization is revealed as the message source.

Results from three studies using experimentally manipulated messages (Studies 1 and 3) and real TV commercials (Study 2) suggest that work-framed social marketing communication messages may be more effective than fun-framed messages when the sponsoring health organization is disclosed, versus not disclosed in the ad.

This research extends the literature on source-effects on message effectiveness by suggesting that the type of message sponsor (i.e. a health organization) may influence attitudes toward the physical activity promoted in the message content.

The results suggest that health organizations may be able to maximize communication effectiveness by employing work – rather than fun-framed messages, when it is evident that the message source is a health organization. When individuals are unaware that a health organization is the message source or when a non-health organization is the message source, fun-framed messages may be as effective for encouraging physical activity.

This research may assist health organizations to make the best use of their limited resources by providing guidance for the development of social marketing communication messages that encourage people to be physically active.

Although source effects on marketing message effectiveness have been well established in the marketing literature, this study is the first to suggest that a health-organization message source interacts with work- versus fun-framed message content to impact the persuasiveness of messages designed to encourage physical activity.

Taking the customer-centric nature of integrated marketing communications (IMC), this article investigates the specific role of customer performance in IMC effectiveness in various size companies applying inter-country context.

The sample consists of the primary data from developed (Spain) and developing (Belarus) economies. A total of 540 manager respondents participated in the survey. The article uses structural equation modeling and multi-group analysis for analysis.

When taking into consideration, customer performance affects the IMC outcome on the market and financial performance. The customer performance role varies in firms of various sizes and small- and medium -sized enterprises (SMEs) operating both in developed and developing economies.

The research underlines the significant role of customer performance in IMC implementation, which stimulates further investigation on the topic. It also closes the gap in the IMC outcomes analysis in SMEs operating in developed and developing economies.

Customer evaluation plays a vital role in the IMC outcomes for market growth and financial returns. SMEs and larger companies implement IMC with different levels of effectiveness. SMEs with IMC implementation can gain an advantage over larger rivals and improve their market position. Moreover, the study generalizes the results by applying inter-country context.

This is a pioneering study of the complex IMC outcomes model under firms' size moderate conditions. The research applies an inter-country context.

Netizens refer to citizens of the internet, and code-switching refers to the use of more than one language, style or form of expression to communicate. This study explores the advertising communication effectiveness of using netizen language code-switching in Facebook ads. Moreover, if a brand is with negative brand images, using positive brand images as a control group, this study investigates not only the advertising communication effectiveness of netizen language code-switching but also its effectiveness of remedying the negative brand images.

Online experiments were conducted, and data were analyzed using independent sample t-test, MANOVA and ANOVA.

The results indicate that netizen language code-switching can enhance advertising communication effectiveness in Facebook ads. Furthermore, under a negative brand image, netizen language code-switching has significant effects on improving Facebook advertising communication effectiveness.

This study takes netizens as the research subjects to explore the advertising communication effectiveness of netizen language code-switching in Facebook ads. This study provides further insight into the effect of netizens' culture on Facebook advertising and enriches the existing literature on social media advertising, as well as expanding the application of code-switching. The results of this study provide enterprises a new perspective on the copywriting content design of Facebook ads.

The purpose of this paper was to examine the difference in the effect on external marketing effectiveness of gender similar boards and gender dissimilar boards in the agro-manufacturing industry in Zimbabwe.

Based on a multi-item construct of external marketing effectiveness, data were gathered from 56 agro-manufacturing firms. The significant differences in the effect of marketing activities designed by male, gender-diverse and female boards on the level of external marketing effectiveness of the firms were examined using MANOVA.

The results suggest significant differences on the levels of external marketing effectiveness between all female boards and all male and gender-diverse boards. Female boards indicated high levels of external marketing effectiveness on customer-perceived value, loyalty, satisfaction, brand performance and symbolic meaning. The study concludes that marketing effectiveness will only be achieved by firms that develop relevant marketing strategies for the female consumer market.

The sample for this research was drawn from agro-manufacturing firms in Zimbabwe. Therefore, the applicability of these findings to other countries should be done with caution. In addition, the sample for the research was rather small, with only a few female boards. If conducted with a larger sample, the results could be different. The developed scale to measure external marketing effectiveness may require to be tested by other researchers in different settings to confirm its applicability in measuring the construct in multiple settings.

Prior research shows that corporate board effectiveness has tended to be measured in terms of corporate financial performance. This research measures board effectiveness from the extent to which its gender composition has an effect on the ability of manufacturing firms to serve emerging needs of female consumers.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether explicitly communicating the customer’s resource integrating role in value propositions improves or diminishes value proposition effectiveness.

Based on existing research on value propositions, three effectiveness criteria are used: role clarity, expected customer value, and purchase intention. Two experiments manipulating the presence of the customer’s resource integrating role in value propositions test the conceptual model in both an indirect interaction (Study 1, toothpaste, n=207) and a direct interaction context (Study 2, fitness program, n=228). Additionally, Study 2 includes the moderating role of resource availability.

Explicitly communicating the customer’s resource integrating role in value propositions increases customers’ role clarity, which in turn influences customer’s attitude toward the service and purchase intention through a service-related (i.e. expected benefits and expected efforts) and an ad-related (i.e. ad credibility and attitude toward the ad) route. However, these results only hold for customers high in resource availability.

This research provides initial empirical support for the often-stated claim that value propositions should include the (potential) value of the offering as well as the (resource integrating) role of the customer. Taking a broader perspective, this research provides initial empirical support for recent calls to develop marketing communication practices that facilitate value-in-use. This paper’s findings show that adopting service logic in marketing communications seems to improve value propositions’ effectiveness.

Cultural factors have tremendous impact on cross‐national communication, and it is in the area of cross‐cultural communications that most blunders in international marketing occur. Using Hofstede′s four discussions of culture, this article provides a generalisable framework to assess the effectiveness of cross‐cultural communication. The application of the proposed framework has been demonstrated in the context of promoting international tourism.