Emerging Perspectives on Marketing in a Multichannel and Multimedia Retailing Environment

Available online at www.sciencedirect.com Journal of Interactive Marketing 24 (2010) 55 – 57 www.elsevier.com/locate/intmar Editorial Emerging Perspectives on Marketing in a Multichannel and Multimedia Retailing Environment Venkatesh Shankar a,⁎ & Manjit S. Yadav b a Department of Marketing, Mays Business School, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-4112, USA Center for Retailing Studies, Mays Business School, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA b The impact of changes in technology on business and society continues to be a topic of major interest to researchers and practitioners. In an engaging book entitled Mediamorphosis that appeared several years ago, Roger Fidler presented an in-depth exploration of how media technologies such as the radio and television evolved during the early part of the twentieth century. Using that historical backdrop, Fidler (1997) examined trends related to the merging of different types of media that had traditionally remained distinct but were beginning to merge to yield new, less understood forms. Despite the relatively unfamiliar terrain and dynamics of this new media landscape, Fidler observed that “the forces shaping our future are essentially the same that have shaped our past” (p. 7). This perspective certainly has merit. However, in addition to recognizing the continuity of fundamental individual, business, and societal forces, it is equally important to acknowledge the possibility of disruptions in business and society that can stem from technological shifts. Developing a clear understanding of what aspects of business remain the same, what elements change, and why they change due to technological shifts, remains an enduring pursuit for researchers and managers. Reflecting on changes in marketing triggered by the Internet and related technological developments, it becomes readily apparent that Fidler's intuition was right—a lot of extant knowledge regarding markets, consumer, and firms still matters and will most likely continue to do so. Developing superior products and taking them to market on the strength of a well-conceived marketing mix, remain just as relevant today as in previous years. What has changed significantly is the execution, and, in many situations, the outcomes of these decisions. Data availability to support and refine such decisions has expanded significantly. Market segments have lost their traditional coarseness, pricing decisions can be updated more frequently, new media have emerged, and an expanded set of channel options are now available to firms and consumers. Collectively, these changes raise a number of significant questions that touch upon practically every substantive issue in marketing. In the retailing context, the focus of this special issue, researchers and managers have struggled to fully understand the implications of recent developments in multimedia and multichannel. For instance, does location still matter in retailing? How rapidly or slowly will consumers adopt new technologies that could eventually result in a shift in deeply-entrenched purchasing preferences? Will the decline of search costs result in sharply lower prices and profit margins? Collectively, what implications do answers to such questions have for retailers' competitive strategies and their outcomes? The articles that appear in this special issue address these and related issues. Keller (2010) examines brand management challenges in the growing multichannel, multimedia retail environment. He recognizes that marketers need to manage each channel of communication and delivery to maximize sales and leverage direct and indirect brand equity, while developing synergistic delivery and communication strategies. He advances a framework for analyzing these challenges and outlines future research directions to address these challenges. Kumar (2010) proposes a multichannel, multimedia communications framework based on customer lifetime value that applies to both B2C and B2B contexts. The framework advocates sending targeted messages to customers in firms' databases using differentiated modes of communication for four customer segments, which he labels as “Icons,” “Go-Getters,” “Opulents,” and “Misers.” Kumar suggests responses customized to these segments based on the purpose of the inbound communication call. He also offers managerial implications and outlines future research avenues. ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: vshankar@mays.tamu.edu (V. Shankar), yadav@tamu.edu (M.S. Yadav). 1094-9968/$ - see front matter © 2010 Direct Marketing Educational Foundation, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.intmar.2010.02.003 56 V. Shankar, M.S. Yadav / Journal of Interactive Marketing 24 (2010) 55–57 Besides the two invited essays (Keller, 2010; Kumar, 2010), the remaining seven articles originated from a Thought Leadership Conference organized in January 2009 by the Center for Retailing Studies at Texas A&M University. Fig. 1 organizes the seven articles by the entity of focus: (a) the consumer; (b) the retailer; and (c) the manufacturer/service provider. The articles focus on the following topics: (1) consumer behavior; (2) interactive technologies; (3) mobile marketing; (4) customer relationship management (CRM); (5) pricing; (6) interactive services; and (7) multichannel marketing. As shown in the figure, the seven articles seek to understand how multimedia and multichannel developments allow new forms of interactions (e.g., communications and transactions) to emerge among consumers, retailers, manufacturers and service providers. Although a consumer-centric view is reflected throughout this issue, Dholakia et al. (2010) take an in-depth look at emerging consumer behavior issues as they relate to multimedia and multichannel developments in the marketplace. They argue that the long-standing distinction between the information channel and the purchase channel has increasingly become blurred as a result of these developments. As these channels begin to commingle, consumers and retailers face many new opportunities and challenges to shape their interactions. The authors propose that research opportunities in this area can be identified by focusing on three interrelated issues: what consumers bring (e.g., varying purchasing goals); what consumers encounter (e.g., design factors in a shopping environment); and what consumers do (e.g., behaviors related to search and product selection). Varadarajan et al. (2010) present a detailed examination of how interactive technologies impact retailing strategy. This article first places the current generation of interactive technologies in an historical context by discussing how previous generations of technological developments (e.g., radio, catalogs, and automobiles) shaped the retailing competitive landscape. Building on this historical perspective, the authors posit that interactive technologies endow retailers with the capabilities to engage in an expanded, value-added set of activities to serve customers before, during, and after a transaction. The article argues that this notion of capabilities endowment is central to understanding how the emerging interactive technologies will likely shape retailers' strategic options. Shankar et al. (2010), view mobile marketing as promotion of offers among a firm and its customers using the mobile medium, device, channel, or technology, consistent with Shankar and Balasubramanian (2009). Shankar et al. (2010) analyze the growing role of mobile marketing in the retailing environment. They argue that mobile marketing can change the retailing paradigm from consumer entry into the retailing environment to retailer entry into the consumer environment because of the location-based 24/7 properties of mobile devices. They propose a conceptual framework in which they discuss mobile consumer activities, and segments, mobile adoption enablers and inhibitors, and retailer mobile marketing activities. They identify effective retailer mobile marketing strategies, some customer and company issues, future scenarios and research opportunities. Many retailers now practice CRM based on large amounts of data on customers through initiatives such as loyalty programs. Verhoef et al. (2010) provide an overview of the extant literature on CRM with a specific focus on retailing. They discuss how retailers can gather useful customer data and analyze these data to gain actionable customer insights. They offer an overview of the methodologies for predicting customer Fig. 1. An organizing framework for marketing in a multichannel and multimedia retailing environment. (1): Dholakia et al. (2010), (2): Varadarajan et al. (2010), (3): Shankar et al. (2010), (4): Verhoef et al. (2010), (5): Grewal et al. (2010), (6): Berry et al. (2010), (7) Zhang et al. (2010). V. Shankar, M.S. Yadav / Journal of Interactive Marketing 24 (2010) 55–57 responses and of the application of CRM programs and their impact on firm value. They outline future research opportunities and their potential implications for retail practice. Grewal et al. (2010) provide an overview of findings from research on pricing in offline and online channels and present an organizing framework and an agenda for further research. In the framework, the authors review the effects of factors relating to the firm, economy, competition, product and channels on pricing and promotional strategies and examine the effects of these strategies on metrics pertaining to the consumer and the firm. Berry et al. (2010) discuss emerging innovation opportunities related to interactive services in retailing. The authors contend that, to identify and understand the implications of these potential innovations, retailers must recognize the central importance of consumers' increasing power. They argue that the Internet and related technological developments empower and embolden consumers. The increased power of consumers, according to the authors, has implications for creating synergies among channels, the delivery of pre-and post-transaction service, and the optimal use of resources in retailing. The article also highlights the potentially important role of consumer heterogeneity. The authors point out that differences in existing relationships (e.g., new vs. established) and consumers' varying willingness to participate in interactive services must be taken into account to understand the effects of increasing consumer power. In the concluding article, Zhang et al. (2010) extend multichannel management research (e.g., Neslin et al., 2006; Neslin and Shankar, 2009) by discussing key findings from existing research and future research directions related to multichannel retailing. They focus on the motivations and constraints of multichannel retailing strategies, the challenges in crafting these strategies, the opportunities for coordinating multiple channels, the key retail mix decisions, and the dynamics of multichannel retailing. Taken together, these articles provide a detailed understanding of the major issues related to the special issue's theme. Finally, a few words about the process that resulted in the articles featured in this special issue. As noted earlier, these articles stem from a Thought Leadership Conference organized by the Center for Retailing Studies at Texas A&M University. The conference was co-sponsored by the Marketing Science Institute, Texas A&M University's Mays Business School, and its Marketing Department. We are grateful for their support that made the conference and this special issue possible. The three-day conference (January 28–30, 2009) attracted leading scholars and senior executives who worked in seven teams on topics related to the 57 theme of the conference. Manuscripts based on discussions at the conference were submitted for publication consideration to the Journal of Interactive Marketing and the journal's standard review procedures were followed in evaluating the submitted manuscripts. Manuscripts in which one of us was involved as a co-author were handled by the other co-editor. We hope you enjoy reading this special issue as much as we enjoyed putting it together and editing it. We also trust that these articles will spawn more research on the theme of this special issue. References Berry, Leonard L., Ruth N. Bolton, Cheryl H. Bridges, Jeffrey Meyer, A. Parasuraman, and Kathleen Seiders (2010), “Opportunities for Innovation in the Delivery of Interactive Retail Services,” Journal of Interactive Marketing, 24, 2, 155–67. Dholakia, Utpal M., Barbara E. Kahn, Randy Reeves, Aric Rindfleisch, David Stewart, and Earl Taylor (2010), “Consumer Behavior in a Multichannel, Multimedia Retailing Environment,” Journal of Interactive Marketing, 24, 2, 86–95. Fidler, Roger (1997), Mediamorphosis: Understanding the New Media. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press. Grewal, Dhruv, Ramkumar Janakiraman, Kirthi Kalyanam, P.K. Kannan, Brian Ratchford, Reo Song, and Stephen Tolerico (2010), “Strategic Online and Offline Retail Pricing: A Review and Research Agenda,” Journal of Interactive Marketing, 24, 2, 138–54. Keller, Kevin Lane (2010), “Brand Equity Management in a Multichannel, Multimedia Retail Environment,” Journal of Interactive Marketing, 24, 2, 58–70. Kumar, V. (2010), “A Customer Lifetime Value-based Approach to Marketing in the Multichannel, Multimedia Retail Environment,” Journal of Interactive Marketing, 24, 2, 71–85. Neslin, Scott A., Dhruv Grewal, Robert Leghorn, Venkatesh Shankar, Marije L. Teerling, Jacquelyn S. Thomas, and Peter C. Verhoef (2006), “Challenges and Opportunities in Multichannel Management,” Journal of Service Research, 9, 2, 95–112. ——— and Venkatesh Shankar (2009), “Key Issues in Multichannel Customer Management: Current Knowledge and Future Directions,” Journal of Interactive Marketing, 23, 1, 70–81. Shankar, Venkatesh and Sridhar Balasubramanian (2009), “Mobile Marketing: Synthesis and Prognosis,” Journal of Interactive Marketing, 23, 2, 118–29. ———, Alladi Venkatesh, Charles Hofacker, and Prasad Naik (2010), “Mobile Marketing in the Retailing Environment: Current Insights and Future Research Avenues,” Journal of Interactive Marketing, 24, 2, 111–20. Varadarajan, Rajan, Raji Srinivasan, Gautham Gopal Vadakkepatt, Manjit S. Yadav, Paul A. Pavlou, Sandeep Krishnamurthy, and Tom Krause (2010), “Interactive Technologies and Retailing Strategy: A Review, Conceptual Framework and Future Research Directions,” Journal of Interactive Marketing, 24, 2, 96–110. Verhoef, Peter C., Rajkumar Venkatesan, Leigh McAlister, Edward C. Malthouse, Manfred Krafft, and Shankar Ganesan (2010), “CRM in Datarich Multichannel Retailing Environments: A Review and Future Research Directions,” Journal of Interactive Marketing, 24, 2, 121–37. Zhang, Jie, Paul W. Farris, John W. Irvin, Tarun Kushwaha, Thomas J. Steenburgh, and Barton A. Weitz (2010), “Crafting Integrated Multichannel Retailing Strategies,” Journal of Interactive Marketing, 24, 2, 168–80.