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Marketing has radically changed in the past few years. With the rise of digital marketing, search technology, blogging and podcasts, consumer access to information and content has exploded. This paper aims to provide a critical look at one aspect of this change, inbound marketing and the creation of content to drive engagement. Inbound marketing differs from traditional marketing by pulling customers to the firm, as opposed to reaching out through traditional advertising.

This study provides an overview of inbound marketing and illustrate three views of inbound marketing: digital, social and content marketing.

The study highlights the importance of consumer personae, critical content creation and customer strategies.

The study concludes with a look to the future of inbound marketing and clear guidelines for developing an inbound strategy, including understanding the buyer personas, strategic analysis and a formulized plan for inbound content creation.

This work combines traditional theoretical research and analysis to provide a comprehensive and clear illustration of what inbound marketing is and where it can be used in both business strategy and academic research.

A model based on representational thinking is presented to explain the role of environment in brand evaluation. With respect to retail settings, we conclude that the environment of a retail setting is not of critical importance in brand evaluation when consumers have elaborate representations of their target brands. When their representations for target brands are less elaborate, consumers' evaluations of these brands will be derived from their representations of either the physical or social environment, or both, to the extent that these representations are well elaborated. The strategic marketing implications of the above relationships are also discussed.

In early 2016, after the success of its first two smartphones, the OnePlus One and OnePlus 2, China-based startup smartphone maker OnePlus was deciding how to build on its early success and grow into a global contender in the highly competitive smartphone market. Technology enthusiasts and geeks had flocked to purchase the first two generations of its smartphones and expectations were high for the company's next product. The company's founders, Pete Lau and Carl Pei, faced the challenge of broadening the appeal of OnePlus to address the mainstream market without alienating its core customer base.

“Crossing the chasm” from the early adopters to the mainstream market involved addressing three interrelated questions: First, what segments should OnePlus target as it sought to grow beyond its loyal fan base? Second, what value proposition and positioning strategy should it adopt to appeal to these target customers? Finally, what distribution and marketing communications strategy should it employ to make best use of its limited financial resources? A key consideration in formulating its strategy was to stay true to the company's culture and mission of “Never Settle” by charting its own course and not emulating the strategies of much larger competitors like Apple, Samsung, LG, and HTC.

Marketers must be aware that consumers do not evaluate all products in the same way. Even brands that are perceived as very similar overall are often selectively evaluated. Consumer product involvement, or concern with the actual purchase or use of the product, affects these selective perception processes in several ways. Implications for market segmentation, product differentiation, and communication strategies are discussed.

With grocery brands manufacturers trying to respond to the increasingly concentrated retailing environment and the significant investment in own labels by retailers, a less than healthy future has been reported for some brands (eg Leahy, 1987). To succeed, grocery brands manufacturers should not only take into account consumer buying behaviour, but also recognise and respond to retailers' strategic objectives. However, brands manufacturers have to strike the right balance between satisfying consumers' needs and helping retailers achieve their corporate goals. Warnings have been sounded about the dangers of brands manufacturers shifting their attention too much to retailers, with the consequential cut in consumer related activities, and during the first part of this decade there has been speculation about whether own labels and brands were becoming more alike. This paper is concerned with the problem of similarities/dissimilarities between brands and retailer labels and by reporting on a major consumer research programme provides insight as to the way consumers perceive the competitive tiers of brands, own labels and generics.

This paper examines the likely influences on the sourcing of textiles by UK retail buyers. It reports the results of secondary data analyses on the retail market and primary data from personal interviews with 102 textile buyers. The main influence on the British market from changes in international agreements will be a greater opportunity to source from low‐cost markets. This could negatively affect traditional sources such as Italy and Portugal. The structure of the UK market is analysed to provide a basis for the selection of interviewees. Buyers who were interviewed tended to fall into two groups, younger but well qualified and older, less well qualified but more experienced. The younger group included more females. They tended to refer important decisions to others, although this correlated more with experience than with gender. Conclusions are drawn on the implications of the study for textile marketers, particularly those from other EU countries. By enhancing their understanding of the structure of the UK retail sector, suppliers are able to devise strategies that take into account the specific nature of distribution of textiles and clothing in the UK, and consequently increase their ability to compete in this changing market.

Identifies the relationship between price and the consumer's evaluation of product quality with regard to developing a pricing strategy. Assesses the effects of price changes, and investigates the influence of advertising on perceived product quality.

Self‐concept, despite its marketing relevance, has been overshadowed by other psychological concepts. The self‐concept is, however, significant and relevant to the study of consumer behavior because many purchases made by consumers are directly influenced by the image an individual has of himself. A fundamental question involves the process of the formation of the self‐concept. Several distinct qualities exist within the self‐concept, and once the self‐concept is established, these have a bearing upon the individual's behavior and his relationship with his objective, subjective, social, and ideal self. For marketers, an understanding of the self‐concept and self‐image can provide the means for developing more effective marketing programs. Consistency and congruence also play an important part in establishing the relationship between the self‐concept, the individual's image, and final purchase behavior. Other factors also play a part in the process and, in some situations, misunderstandings about their importance can result in less than effective marketing efforts. Careful research and analysis of the relevant factors affecting the self‐concept and their effect on purchase behavior can make for more effective market strategic planning. This article examines the various issues related to the marketing applicability of the self‐concept and discusses its implications in terms of research and market strategic planning.

The marketing manager has little or no guidance in formulating competitive strategies. This article presents a marketing strategy planning tool based on customers' perceptions of the positions of competing brands across various product attributes. The method, called “Simultaneous Importance‐Performance Analysis,” advocates focusing attention on relevant competitors' positions and attacking or defending market territory selectively. An example of its application is provided to illustrate its usefulness. The tool provides a framework for prioritizing alternative marketing strategies and is helpful in deciding on the allocation of limited marketing resources to design an efficient short‐range marketing plan. We will first discuss the nature of competitive advantage strategy and look at the marketing manager's dilemma on how to select tactics to develop a competitive advantage. We will then describe and illustrate “simultaneous importance — performance analysis,” based on importance‐performance analysis. Finally, we will suggest how this technique might be integrated into a company's strategic planning system.

How does a company develop the optimal product while holding down development costs and shortening lead times for introduction? The authors have developed a scaling technique that does both.