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The purpose of this paper is to examine reported literature on the influence of medical representatives (MRs) and other promotional tools on drug prescribing behaviour, and to assess whether this effect is different in developed and developing countries.

A survey of the literature was conducted across online databases from 2000 to 2016. Eligible studies addressed MRs and other promotion tools used to influence drug prescribing in developed and developing countries.

A total of 40 reviewed studies met the inclusion requirements. In total, 22 of the studies were conducted in developed countries and 18 in developing countries. Out of ten studies that examined the influence of MRs on drug prescribing in developed countries, eight found a positive influence, one found only moderate and one finds no influence. Analogous results were found in developing countries. Six out of ten studies on the influence of MRs conducted in developing countries found a positive effect, three found only moderate effects, while one finds no influence. The influence of promotion tools on prescribing varied in developed countries, five found positive influence, four reported a small effect and one found negative influence. In developing countries, the size of effect also varied, five studies found positive influence of promotion tools on drug prescribing behaviour, five found a negligible or small effect, and one found no association. However, marked differences were observed between two sectors. In the developed countries, MRs are valued as a source of information and can have an effect on prescribing, while it is unreliable in developing countries. Sample drugs are more generally seen as an important promotional tool for prescribing in developed countries than developing countries.

The results derived from this review are based on studies with varying methodological consistency. The review provides the crucial information that will be valuable to researchers working on comparative analysis of marketing efforts in developing and developed countries.

This paper is one of the few systematic reviews on the influence of MRs and other promotional tools on prescribing. It compares the influence of MRs and promotional efforts in both developed and developing countries.

The need for a more overt marketing orientation within planned shopping centres in the UK has been noted by various authors. However, the management orientation of planned shopping centres has been described as property‐ rather than customer‐led. This article considers the role of marketing for planned shopping centres, with particular reference to regional shopping centres (RSCs). The emphasis of marketing activity in this context is primarily promotional, and the process by which promotional activities are planned and implemented by RSCs is considered and contrasted with Fill's model of the marketing communications planning process.

Semi‐structured interviews were undertaken with marketing managers in four of the nine RSCs in the UK (two interviews were face‐to‐face, one interview was by telephone and one interview was via e‐mail). These exploratory interviews sought to identify: respondents’ perceptions of marketing and the role of the marketing function within the organisation; the nature of the marketing/promotional objectives that were set; the identity of the target audiences for marketing/promotional activity; the process by which this activity was planned; and the specific marketing/promotional tools used. All the interviews were analysed using the template analysis technique.

Findings are reported under the following headings: role of marketing; perceptions of marketing; marketing planning; target audiences/objectives; promotional activities; and evaluation.

This research is exploratory, comprising four interviews (however, there are only nine RSCs in the UK). More detailed research into the processes of marketing communications planning in this context should be implemented.

This paper shows how general models relating to theoretical aspects of marketing (in this case marketing communications planning), may need to be amended to reflect the practical reality of specific market contexts and the discussion section of the paper outlines this in more detail.

Following on from the above point, the paper provides a framework for marketing communications planning in the specific context of RSCs in the UK. As such, it has resonance for the practice of marketing in all planned retail developments.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the responsibilities and challenges faced by academic librarians whose major responsibilities include the overall promotion of the library.

A questionnaire was sent to seven library listservs asking respondents to describe their work duties, promotional activities, academic background, and professional challenges and concerns.

This study garnered 215 responses. Respondents who completed the questionnaire identified as academic librarians whose major responsibilities include the overall promotion of the library. Librarians who promote face a plethora of challenges, including time restraints, lack of funding and limited support for their promotional efforts. These barriers place a strain on promotional work in academic libraries.

The paper illustrates the roles and responsibilities of librarians who promote and the challenges and obstacles they deal with on an institutional and departmental level.

This study provides a unique snapshot of marketing initiatives across various academic libraries, in the midst of a global economic recession.

In the highly saturated sports industry where sport teams represent a complex offering loaded with intangible and tangible attributes, it is important to implement appropriate marketing strategies that will ultimately contribute to the development of strong brand equity. In this paper, the authors focused on the relationship between brand variables and marketing activities on the development of brand equity. More specifically, the purpose of this paper is to study the impact of brand personality on the evaluation of marketing promotional activities and the impact on the brand equity.

Respondents (2,400) were recruited through an online survey and data were analyzed using structural equation modeling.

The survey revealed that the congruence between the brand personality and the promotional activities has a positive impact on its evaluation and on brand equity. In addition, the results showed that consumers who consider the financial strength of the team as an important factor evaluate more positively the value of congruent and incongruent promotional activities.

Brand managers should maintain consistency between their brand personality and their promotional activities in order to maintain and increase their brand equity.

The results contribute to the literature by investigating the impact of brand personality on the evaluation of promotional activities. Also, it examines an important factor (financial consciousness) that could influence how fans react in front of an incongruent promotional activity. This research brings a better understanding of the impact of brand personality on marketing strategies and brand equity.

It is observed that many destinations are implementing sport tourism offerings to enhance their ability to attract visitors through satisfying their desires of new experiences. This has led to a highly competitive sport tourism market and as a result destinations engage in various marketing techniques and promotional tools to gain an advantage. For that reason this research was undertaken to acquire a greater understanding of the importance of promotional tools to successfully and efficiently market sport tourism experiences.

The construct of this study comprises of two stages. The aim of the first stage is to evaluate the specific tools used to promote sport tourism and sport tourism experiences in Barbados by examining the responses of various sporting and tourism bodies. The second stage of this research was conducted to present and analyze how marketing/promotional tools could contribute to better market sport tourism experiences.

The research found that many of the promotional tools implemented in Barbados during their marketing process correspond with those used internationally. However, problems of poor and insufficient sporting facilities as well as little collaboration between tourism and sporting entities, hamper the success of Barbados as a sport tourism destination. This further minimized Barbados’ ability to market favorable tourism experiences. This therefore shows that while promotional tools are essential in attracting tourists, other elements must also be taken into consideration to ensure sport tourists have positive experiences which would lead to a successful sport tourism destination.

Few studies in this area have been undertaken in the Caribbean. This study attempts to fill this gap by examining the implementation of sport tourism offerings to attract visitors to Barbados.

This paper aims to investigate customer attitude towards the use of emerging social media platforms (SMPs) for promotional activities by United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based Islamic banks, particularly, in the post-COVID-19 era. The key drivers of this research include analysing, anticipating and providing recommendations to reinvigorate the marketing and promotional strategies of the UAE Islamic banks to spark renewed customer interest.

This study is anticipatory and descriptive in nature. Primary data is used to understand customer perception towards the use of emerging social media marketing tools by the UAE-based Islamic banks. Reliability, factor analysis and multiple regression analysis are applied to understand customer attitude. While focusing on the current COVID-19 scenario, the need for innovative structure is envisaged to meet the post-COVID-19 needs.

The findings of this research highlight the significance of emerging SMPs such as WhatsApp, TikTok, Pinterest, Viber, Snapchat and their application as promotional tools to inspire the purchase intention of customers in this virtual age. The results of the study reveal these emerging SMPs are predicted to be used as the preferred promotional tools for Islamic banks.

This paper is limited to the UAE Islamic banks and to a specified set of SMPs as promotional tools. Nevertheless, its findings have important implications that can be extended and validated through studying the post-COVID-19 customer attitude towards other innovative promotional tools used by commercial banks in general and Islamic banks in particular, in the GCC and Middle East and North Africa (MENA) regions.

There is currently limited available research on the innovative social media marketing techniques and promotional strategies. This study is a novel attempt to examine the adoption of the emerging SMPs as promotional tools by the UAE Islamic banks. This paper extends value to the existing studies on the impact of the pandemic on the promotional activities of the UAE Islamic banking industry. Nonetheless, while regionally specific, it is valuable in its potential application to the Islamic banking sector in the entire GCC and MENA region in the post-COVID-19 era.

A common complaint about shopping malls is the “sameness” of them. Despite this, shopping mall groups are increasingly using group branding as the basis for promotional activities, emphasising the security for the customer of knowing that they will receive the same level of mix, no matter which “branch” is shopped at. This research examines the effectiveness of group versus local promotional activities, with the premise that level of local market dominance will impact on the effectiveness of both promotional types. The two key performance indicators of sales and foot traffic were used to measure effectiveness. Findings suggest that promotional type and level of market dominance have significant effects on sales and traffic. Managerial implications are offered, along with suggestions for future research extending this study to other retail groups.

Promotion is used to communicate with customers with respect to product offerings. This article explores the role of promotion in the information marketplace. Promotion has a key role in determining profitability and market success and is one of the key “Four Ps” of the marketing mix. The tools that can be employed in the promotional mix include: advertising; direct marketing;sales promotion; public relations and publicity; personal selling and sponsorship. The article reviews the stages in the design of communications strategies and thereby explores concepts such as target audiences, marketing messages, communication channels, promotional budgets and monitoring promotional performances.

This paper aims to explore how music festival organisers negotiate diversity and inclusion in marketing and promotion practices through symbolic and social boundaries.

Based on semi-structured interviews with 18 festival organisers in Rotterdam and participant observation with six festival photographers I show that symbolic and social boundaries are employed in three areas: (1) boundaries in festival format (i.e. [partially] free or ticketed), (2) boundaries in distribution partners and technologies and (3) boundaries in promotional content.

Symbolic and social boundaries are intentionally used by festival organisers to build and delineate festival audiences. Implications are drawn on current understandings of the accessibility of music festival spaces, arguing that festival research should move beyond within-space dynamics to grasp the negotiation of diversity and inclusion at festivals more fully.

While music festivals are often marketed as celebratory spaces that are “welcoming to everyone”, few studies have investigated diversity and inclusion nor marketing and promotion practices at music festivals. This study shows how festival audiences are shaped through marketing and promotion practices.

The purpose of this paper is to understand and identify the marketing strategies and specific promotional tools used by film commissions to attract the production of films and television.

The paper involves in‐depth interviews with film commissions worldwide and a content analysis of their promotional materials.

Film commissions employ three key strategic marketing approaches when promoting their locations to film producers – product differentiation, service differentiation, and cost advantages. They use six main specific promotional tactics – advertising, sales promotions, joint promotions, public relations, online marketing, and direct marketing and personal selling. A model explaining the relationship between film commissions and film producers involving these strategies and promotional tools is suggested.

The marketing of film locations is under‐researched and has to be further addressed in the marketing literature. Future research can seek to identify the specific marketing activities that will lead to success for the marketing of film locations.

Examples of the best marketing practices amongst film commissions are highlighted.

This is an original contribution in that it is the first academic paper to address the marketing of film locations. It will be of significant value to film locations seeking to attract production to their locations.