Stakeholder Marketing: Beyond the 4P's and the Customer
Conference Materials
Please click on the names below to view the participants' research questions for the conference and working papers.
- C.B. Bhattacharya, Boston University (Faculty Chair)
- Paul Bloom, Duke University
- Peter Dacin, Queens University
- Rohit Deshpandé, Harvard Business School
- Meme Drumwright, University of Texas
- Susan Fournier, Boston University
- Ronald Hill, Villanova
- Barbara E. Kahn, University of Miami
- Punam Keller, Dartmouth
- Jill Klein, INSEAD
- Aradhna Krishna, University of Michigan
- Katherine Lemon, Boston College
- John Lynch, Duke University
- David Glen Mick, University of Virginia
- Priya Raghubir, Berkeley
- John Roberts, London Business School
- Sankar Sen, Baruch College, CUNY
- Craig Smith, London Business School
- Madhu Viswanathan, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
- Jim Walsh, University of Michigan
CSR as an Internal Marketing Strategy (PDF)
1) How do we make the information surrounding the positive relationship between corporate responsibility and firm market value relevant to Wall Street and have them take notice?
2) What is the impact of "fair trade" certification (on certain brands) in categories such as coffee and bananas on customer demand?
3) How do "responsible" generic drug pricing initiatives by firms such as Walmart and Target affect competition?
4) How can food companies like Nestle and Frito Lay reposition themselves to convince their stakeholders that they care about their wellbeing?
5) How do we measure the effectiveness of corporate responsibility in the B-2-B arena? What metrics related to corporate responsibility should go on to a corporate dashboard?
1) How do we make the information surrounding the positive relationship between corporate responsibility and firm market value relevant to Wall Street and have them take notice?
2) What is the impact of "fair trade" certification (on certain brands) in categories such as coffee and bananas on customer demand?
3) How do "responsible" generic drug pricing initiatives by firms such as Walmart and Target affect competition?
4) How can food companies like Nestle and Frito Lay reposition themselves to convince their stakeholders that they care about their wellbeing?
5) How do we measure the effectiveness of corporate responsibility in the B-2-B arena? What metrics related to corporate responsibility should go on to a corporate dashboard?
Systemic Change (PDF)
1) How can alliances between corporations and social-purpose organizations be configured to create more synergies and effectiveness for achieving social impact? What are the relative merits and drawbacks of straight philanthropy, cause-related marketing deals (where a percentage of revenues goes to a cause), sponsorships, co-branding, and other configurations? How much should corporate employees become involved in managing alliance initiatives, or should they leave the management to the social-purpose experts?
2) How can corporate employees be persuaded to spend more time volunteering to help social purpose organizations? What motivates employees to volunteer? How can you appeal to those motives?
3) How do you "frame" causes and initiatives that are only likely to have social impacts in the distant future (e.g., environmental protection, physical activity encouragement, education of poor children) to be attractive to stakeholders who are inclined to be more concerned about shorter-term social impacts?
1) How can alliances between corporations and social-purpose organizations be configured to create more synergies and effectiveness for achieving social impact? What are the relative merits and drawbacks of straight philanthropy, cause-related marketing deals (where a percentage of revenues goes to a cause), sponsorships, co-branding, and other configurations? How much should corporate employees become involved in managing alliance initiatives, or should they leave the management to the social-purpose experts?
2) How can corporate employees be persuaded to spend more time volunteering to help social purpose organizations? What motivates employees to volunteer? How can you appeal to those motives?
3) How do you "frame" causes and initiatives that are only likely to have social impacts in the distant future (e.g., environmental protection, physical activity encouragement, education of poor children) to be attractive to stakeholders who are inclined to be more concerned about shorter-term social impacts?
1) Although we often talk about the importance of "managing stakeholders," given the variety of stakeholders and their diverse (and often competing) interests, what are the limitations on the feasibility of strategies that attempt to manage stakeholders who interact in open macro social systems? What is the roll/impact of the new media on the potential effectiveness/success of this type of strategy?
2) Are intentionally managed corporate initiatives aimed at appealing to and benefiting a variety of stakeholders a case of trying to be "something for everyone" that although result in some initial signals of success in the short run are destined to wane in the long run?
3) Are the existing ways of defining and categorizing stakeholders the most appropriate ways for marketers to "segment" stakeholders with respect to the types of corporate initiatives we are discussing at this conference? Are there alternative approaches to looking at stakeholders that may be able to provide marketers with more relevant, powerful and actionable insights?
2) Are intentionally managed corporate initiatives aimed at appealing to and benefiting a variety of stakeholders a case of trying to be "something for everyone" that although result in some initial signals of success in the short run are destined to wane in the long run?
3) Are the existing ways of defining and categorizing stakeholders the most appropriate ways for marketers to "segment" stakeholders with respect to the types of corporate initiatives we are discussing at this conference? Are there alternative approaches to looking at stakeholders that may be able to provide marketers with more relevant, powerful and actionable insights?
1) What is the impact on business performance of broadening from a market/customer orientation to a stakeholder orientation?
2) Have marketers (including academics) failed at marketing Marketing (the discipline, the function, the career) to society?
3) Was Milton Friedman correct? (Are investors the sole/most important stakeholders?)
2) Have marketers (including academics) failed at marketing Marketing (the discipline, the function, the career) to society?
3) Was Milton Friedman correct? (Are investors the sole/most important stakeholders?)
How Advertising Practitioners View Ethics (PDF)
1) What are the effects of CSR on nonprofit organizations?
2) What are the positive effects, and under what circumstances do CSR initiatives have positive effects on nonprofits?
3) What are the negative effects, and in what situations do CSR initiatives have negative effects? What impact do the negative effects have on the nonprofit marketplace more generally? How can the negative effects be anticipated and mitigated?
1) What are the effects of CSR on nonprofit organizations?
2) What are the positive effects, and under what circumstances do CSR initiatives have positive effects on nonprofits?
3) What are the negative effects, and in what situations do CSR initiatives have negative effects? What impact do the negative effects have on the nonprofit marketplace more generally? How can the negative effects be anticipated and mitigated?
Attachment Security (PDF)
1) Leaders as Human Brands. While a solid body of research informs the manner in which commodities and services may be effectively branded, little empirical work concerns the branding of human beings, including and perhaps most relevant to this conference, politicians and leaders of social causes. Some may argue that research on branding is relevant to all contexts, human brands included. However, recent efforts to understand “human brands” as people who are the subject of marketing communication efforts suggest that there exist unique aspects to developing human versus consumer goods brands (Fournier and Herman 2007; Lieb 2007; Parmentier, Fischer and Reuber 2007; Thomson 2006). Moreover, differences in brand strategy manifest within the category of human brands that have been studied, including celebrities, musicians, fashion models, and highly visible leaders of service-based businesses. In what ways are leadership human brands the same and different from traditional brands and from other human brand categories? How can we codify the space comprising leaders as human brands? What are the processes whereby value is created and sustained in human brands?
2) Consumer-created “advertising”. Consumer research has a long tradition in the concept of co-creation: the processes by which consumers create brand and product meanings in order to make sense of and align consumer goods and services within their lives. The scope and traction of the co-creation philosophy have recently been expanded through Vargo and Lusch’s “service dominant logic of marketing.” Changes in the cultural context are well aligned with this theoretical shift, with developments in technology that fuel consumers’ ability to create and share original content for a brand. By many counts, the ascendancy of empowered and consumers as brand content creators is a marketplace reality that transforms the discipline of brand marketing at its core. Practitioners have been quick to recognize the likely power of citizen marketing that takes the form of advertising message creation—so-called “homebrew ads”, “folk ads”, VCAMs (viewer-contributed advertising messages), or more generally, “open source” brands. Mass market manufacturers Frito-Lay, Unilever, and Chevrolet expressed strong support of this tactical arena by airing consumer-generated ads (CGAs) on the 2007 Superbowl and Academy Awards. More recently, however, firms have become cognizant of the risk-reward trade-offs involved with CGAs. Heinz’ June 2007 advertising creation contest primarily generated parodies that made mockery of the brand. More troubling perhaps is the evolution of video sharing sites such as Youtube.com toward organizing platforms for counter-consumption activities and negative brand bricolage. So-called “anti-ads” have as their subjects not just brands and individual companies, but entire industries. For example, per a June 2007 headline in Advertising Age: “Big Pharma Doesn’t Like How it Looks on Youtube.” What are the characteristics of brands and industries that emerge as targets of vigilante ads? How effective are these messages as “brand communications”? Do vigilante ads exert their effects through similar processes that drive traditional brand ads? Does format matter, as with the short documentaries or on-camera interviews such as those noted above for Eli Lilly and the pharmaceutical industry? Is the concept of resonance (personal and cultural) particularly useful for studying processes related to anti-brand and industry ads? How should marketers react to the seeming reality of organized protest of their industries and brands?
3) Internal branding. There was a time when it was thought that an organizations' brand need only be marketed to consumers in the "outside world," ignoring internal company realities. Those days have passed. The phrase Internal Branding was coined in the late 1990's to capture the intra-organizational strategies and tactics that guarantee a corporate culture supporting the brand. While today’s brand managers now recognize brand-building as comprising both an internal and external set of marketing plans, this issue has yet to be studied empirically. What are best practices in internal branding? What is the process whereby a company and its employees are transformed into a brand-driven organization? What metrics should comprise the dashboard designed to gauge the health and culture of the brand? How can we measure and gauge an employees’ readiness for branding in the first place? What organizational, brand, or context factors determine the success of internal brand campaigns? Is there a way to segment employee stakeholders that helps in internal branding effectiveness and design?
1) Leaders as Human Brands. While a solid body of research informs the manner in which commodities and services may be effectively branded, little empirical work concerns the branding of human beings, including and perhaps most relevant to this conference, politicians and leaders of social causes. Some may argue that research on branding is relevant to all contexts, human brands included. However, recent efforts to understand “human brands” as people who are the subject of marketing communication efforts suggest that there exist unique aspects to developing human versus consumer goods brands (Fournier and Herman 2007; Lieb 2007; Parmentier, Fischer and Reuber 2007; Thomson 2006). Moreover, differences in brand strategy manifest within the category of human brands that have been studied, including celebrities, musicians, fashion models, and highly visible leaders of service-based businesses. In what ways are leadership human brands the same and different from traditional brands and from other human brand categories? How can we codify the space comprising leaders as human brands? What are the processes whereby value is created and sustained in human brands?
2) Consumer-created “advertising”. Consumer research has a long tradition in the concept of co-creation: the processes by which consumers create brand and product meanings in order to make sense of and align consumer goods and services within their lives. The scope and traction of the co-creation philosophy have recently been expanded through Vargo and Lusch’s “service dominant logic of marketing.” Changes in the cultural context are well aligned with this theoretical shift, with developments in technology that fuel consumers’ ability to create and share original content for a brand. By many counts, the ascendancy of empowered and consumers as brand content creators is a marketplace reality that transforms the discipline of brand marketing at its core. Practitioners have been quick to recognize the likely power of citizen marketing that takes the form of advertising message creation—so-called “homebrew ads”, “folk ads”, VCAMs (viewer-contributed advertising messages), or more generally, “open source” brands. Mass market manufacturers Frito-Lay, Unilever, and Chevrolet expressed strong support of this tactical arena by airing consumer-generated ads (CGAs) on the 2007 Superbowl and Academy Awards. More recently, however, firms have become cognizant of the risk-reward trade-offs involved with CGAs. Heinz’ June 2007 advertising creation contest primarily generated parodies that made mockery of the brand. More troubling perhaps is the evolution of video sharing sites such as Youtube.com toward organizing platforms for counter-consumption activities and negative brand bricolage. So-called “anti-ads” have as their subjects not just brands and individual companies, but entire industries. For example, per a June 2007 headline in Advertising Age: “Big Pharma Doesn’t Like How it Looks on Youtube.” What are the characteristics of brands and industries that emerge as targets of vigilante ads? How effective are these messages as “brand communications”? Do vigilante ads exert their effects through similar processes that drive traditional brand ads? Does format matter, as with the short documentaries or on-camera interviews such as those noted above for Eli Lilly and the pharmaceutical industry? Is the concept of resonance (personal and cultural) particularly useful for studying processes related to anti-brand and industry ads? How should marketers react to the seeming reality of organized protest of their industries and brands?
3) Internal branding. There was a time when it was thought that an organizations' brand need only be marketed to consumers in the "outside world," ignoring internal company realities. Those days have passed. The phrase Internal Branding was coined in the late 1990's to capture the intra-organizational strategies and tactics that guarantee a corporate culture supporting the brand. While today’s brand managers now recognize brand-building as comprising both an internal and external set of marketing plans, this issue has yet to be studied empirically. What are best practices in internal branding? What is the process whereby a company and its employees are transformed into a brand-driven organization? What metrics should comprise the dashboard designed to gauge the health and culture of the brand? How can we measure and gauge an employees’ readiness for branding in the first place? What organizational, brand, or context factors determine the success of internal brand campaigns? Is there a way to segment employee stakeholders that helps in internal branding effectiveness and design?
Consumer Culture of Poverty (PDF)
A Naturological Approach to Corporate Governance (PDF)
A Simulation of Moral Behavior Within Marketing Exchange Relationships (PDF)
1) Does stakeholder theory have the capacity to recognize the larger social responsibilities of transnational organizations?
2) Can CSR, as currently defined and operationalized, help societies deal with their most difficult consumption problems?
3) What are the interrelationships among CSR, business ethics, and moral mandates as defined by religious heritages, and how do they play out on the world stage?
A Naturological Approach to Corporate Governance (PDF)
A Simulation of Moral Behavior Within Marketing Exchange Relationships (PDF)
1) Does stakeholder theory have the capacity to recognize the larger social responsibilities of transnational organizations?
2) Can CSR, as currently defined and operationalized, help societies deal with their most difficult consumption problems?
3) What are the interrelationships among CSR, business ethics, and moral mandates as defined by religious heritages, and how do they play out on the world stage?
Repeated-Adherence Protection Model (PDF)
1) How should (or if) regulators get involved if consumers/patients are making sub-optimal decisions?
2) Should there be financial incentives required within health insurance plans for appropriate adherence behavior?
3) How does this affect direct-to-consumer advertising that is done by the pharmaceutical companies?
4) What role should the doctor play in this process?
5) Can we invent a new more consumer-focused health/medical process that focuses on follow up and patient issues that would probably require investing in a cheaper intermediary (i.e., other than a doctor or even a nurse practitioner) who focuses on these patient specific issues?
1) How should (or if) regulators get involved if consumers/patients are making sub-optimal decisions?
2) Should there be financial incentives required within health insurance plans for appropriate adherence behavior?
3) How does this affect direct-to-consumer advertising that is done by the pharmaceutical companies?
4) What role should the doctor play in this process?
5) Can we invent a new more consumer-focused health/medical process that focuses on follow up and patient issues that would probably require investing in a cheaper intermediary (i.e., other than a doctor or even a nurse practitioner) who focuses on these patient specific issues?
Designing Effective Health Communications (PDF)
New Ways to Make People Save (PDF)
1) Employee wellness increases productivity and retention,
2) employee wellness improves attitudes towards job and other employees, and
3) employee wellness increases customer satisfaction. The marketing/consumer research contribution is the tailoring of wellness programs for different job descriptions.
New Ways to Make People Save (PDF)
1) Employee wellness increases productivity and retention,
2) employee wellness improves attitudes towards job and other employees, and
3) employee wellness increases customer satisfaction. The marketing/consumer research contribution is the tailoring of wellness programs for different job descriptions.
After All Is Lost (PDF)
1) How is a firm’s CSR reputation weighted in consumer buying decisions? We need methodologies that go beyond simply asking people because there is a strong social desirability bias. Would conjoint or the newly developed implicit attitude measures be helpful in exploring this issue?
2) What are the cross-cultural differences in CSR expectations and perceptions?
3) What are the factors that make consumers (or the media) suspicious of a firm’s CSR activities?
1) How is a firm’s CSR reputation weighted in consumer buying decisions? We need methodologies that go beyond simply asking people because there is a strong social desirability bias. Would conjoint or the newly developed implicit attitude measures be helpful in exploring this issue?
2) What are the cross-cultural differences in CSR expectations and perceptions?
3) What are the factors that make consumers (or the media) suspicious of a firm’s CSR activities?
Cause Marketing (PDF)
1) When does cause-marketing or corporate contributions to charities create skepticism about corporate incentives?
2) How can companies use cause-marketing to help causes and themselves?
3) Is the new craze with environmentally friendly products just an excuse to sell a "high price - high profit" product line?
1) When does cause-marketing or corporate contributions to charities create skepticism about corporate incentives?
2) How can companies use cause-marketing to help causes and themselves?
3) Is the new craze with environmentally friendly products just an excuse to sell a "high price - high profit" product line?
Redefining Customer (PDF)
1) What are the effects of traditional marketing strategies on unintended targets (i.e., those other than the intended “target consumer” or “target customer”)? Are their broader societal effects that we should consider? A few examples( alcoholic beverage advertising that reaches and influences underage markets; high end fashion and new technology marketing that reaches and influences consumers who may not be able to afford such products; over-extension of credit to sub-prime markets)
2) How does a short-term orientation (in terms of marketing actions, outcomes and metrics) influence a firm’s understanding of and focus on its broader stakeholders? For example, if a firm considers only the effects of a marketing strategy/campaign in the short-term (in terms of response, increase in market share, lift, increased short-term awareness) does this lead the firm to be less likely to consider the effects of its actions on its customers and other stakeholders in the long-term (CLV, health issues, environment, social issues)?
3) How will the changes in media and consumers (e.g., consumer generated media, social networks, consumer’s need for control, fragmented media) effect who a firm considers its target customers and its broader stakeholders to be; and how will these changes influence the processes by which a firm seeks to influence these target customers and stakeholders?
1) What are the effects of traditional marketing strategies on unintended targets (i.e., those other than the intended “target consumer” or “target customer”)? Are their broader societal effects that we should consider? A few examples( alcoholic beverage advertising that reaches and influences underage markets; high end fashion and new technology marketing that reaches and influences consumers who may not be able to afford such products; over-extension of credit to sub-prime markets)
2) How does a short-term orientation (in terms of marketing actions, outcomes and metrics) influence a firm’s understanding of and focus on its broader stakeholders? For example, if a firm considers only the effects of a marketing strategy/campaign in the short-term (in terms of response, increase in market share, lift, increased short-term awareness) does this lead the firm to be less likely to consider the effects of its actions on its customers and other stakeholders in the long-term (CLV, health issues, environment, social issues)?
3) How will the changes in media and consumers (e.g., consumer generated media, social networks, consumer’s need for control, fragmented media) effect who a firm considers its target customers and its broader stakeholders to be; and how will these changes influence the processes by which a firm seeks to influence these target customers and stakeholders?
Butlers, Concierges, Spies, and Tipsters (PDF)
An Assistive Consumer Technology (ACT) is an interactive technology designed to increase consumers' utility or decrease their costs of acquiring and consuming commercial goods and services.
1) Consider four models for ACTs: "butlers" and "concierges" who work for an individual consumer or a collective of consumers, and "spies" or "tipsters" who work for sellers but who help buyers in either a relationship or transactional mode. What is the ability and motivation of consumers and sellers to accomplish common consumer tasks with the assistance of butlers, concierges, spies, and tipsters?
2) Why is the current marketplace of assistive technologies dominated by seller-compensated and not buyer-compensated services -- e.g. search engine marketing, mobile marketing? (We classify these as "tipsters" who are compensated by sellers and not buyers, rely on very minimal information, and relate to consumers in transactional and not relationship mode.)
3) Given that seller-side ACTs need information from consumers to add value and buyer-side ACTs need accurate information about products, is the imbalance favoring seller-dominated ACTs is due to supply-side or demand-side considerations?
4) What forces might create a market for buyer-compensated services like "butlers" and "concierges" that seem in principle to have a large advantage in terms of trust and knowledge of consumers?
An Assistive Consumer Technology (ACT) is an interactive technology designed to increase consumers' utility or decrease their costs of acquiring and consuming commercial goods and services.
1) Consider four models for ACTs: "butlers" and "concierges" who work for an individual consumer or a collective of consumers, and "spies" or "tipsters" who work for sellers but who help buyers in either a relationship or transactional mode. What is the ability and motivation of consumers and sellers to accomplish common consumer tasks with the assistance of butlers, concierges, spies, and tipsters?
2) Why is the current marketplace of assistive technologies dominated by seller-compensated and not buyer-compensated services -- e.g. search engine marketing, mobile marketing? (We classify these as "tipsters" who are compensated by sellers and not buyers, rely on very minimal information, and relate to consumers in transactional and not relationship mode.)
3) Given that seller-side ACTs need information from consumers to add value and buyer-side ACTs need accurate information about products, is the imbalance favoring seller-dominated ACTs is due to supply-side or demand-side considerations?
4) What forces might create a market for buyer-compensated services like "butlers" and "concierges" that seem in principle to have a large advantage in terms of trust and knowledge of consumers?
Ends of Marketing (PDF)
Meaning and Mattering (PDF)
1) How do we get our marketing professional associations to get more serious about leading and inspiring their members to practice marketing in a manner that builds the field’s integrity and trustworthiness as a profession that has far reaching effects on quality of life?
2) What should we be teaching our undergraduates and MBAs that can lead and inspire them to take their roles as marketing practitioners more thoughtfully? What virtues should we be promoting and encouraging in them, that will facilitate their firm’s success but not sacrifice public trust, ecological welfare, employee loyalty and health, etc. as trade-offs?
3) What should we be teaching our doctoral students about topics and methods that will guide them to be rigorous scholars working on difficult marketing problems (and opportunities) of high socio-ecological importance?
Meaning and Mattering (PDF)
1) How do we get our marketing professional associations to get more serious about leading and inspiring their members to practice marketing in a manner that builds the field’s integrity and trustworthiness as a profession that has far reaching effects on quality of life?
2) What should we be teaching our undergraduates and MBAs that can lead and inspire them to take their roles as marketing practitioners more thoughtfully? What virtues should we be promoting and encouraging in them, that will facilitate their firm’s success but not sacrifice public trust, ecological welfare, employee loyalty and health, etc. as trade-offs?
3) What should we be teaching our doctoral students about topics and methods that will guide them to be rigorous scholars working on difficult marketing problems (and opportunities) of high socio-ecological importance?
Health Risk Perceptions (PDF)
1) Defining metrics -- for stakeholder involvement/ CSR activity/ labor/ environment etc. How do we measure the impact of various non-traditional activities? What metrics should one use? How would one measure them -- what is their validity? reliability? etc.
2) Public health -- How do consumer health risk issues/ research speak to/ impact public health initiatives?
3) Consumer decision making: What are good (best?) methods to increase the accessibility of CSR/ other stakeholder impact of different products/ services to the average consumer? How does one communicate that what is good for an individual may be also good for society/ the environment etc.?
1) Defining metrics -- for stakeholder involvement/ CSR activity/ labor/ environment etc. How do we measure the impact of various non-traditional activities? What metrics should one use? How would one measure them -- what is their validity? reliability? etc.
2) Public health -- How do consumer health risk issues/ research speak to/ impact public health initiatives?
3) Consumer decision making: What are good (best?) methods to increase the accessibility of CSR/ other stakeholder impact of different products/ services to the average consumer? How does one communicate that what is good for an individual may be also good for society/ the environment etc.?
Mapping the bounds of incoherence (PDF)
1. How do we calibrate and balance different objective functions?
2) How do we address sustainability given high inter-temporal discount rates?
3) How do we brand and communicate socially-related causes?
1. How do we calibrate and balance different objective functions?
2) How do we address sustainability given high inter-temporal discount rates?
3) How do we brand and communicate socially-related causes?
Winning the War for Talent (PDF)
1. When, how and why does CSR influence the employee-consumer interaction?
2) How can we better understand the multi-minded stakeholder (i.e., an individual who is a consumer, employee and investor)?
3) What is the optimal way to communicate CSR to multiple stakeholder audiences?
1. When, how and why does CSR influence the employee-consumer interaction?
2) How can we better understand the multi-minded stakeholder (i.e., an individual who is a consumer, employee and investor)?
3) What is the optimal way to communicate CSR to multiple stakeholder audiences?
Why Managers Fail To Do the Right Thing (PDF)
1. Under what conditions will consumers engage in ethical consumerism?
2) What are the marketing challenges of serving the bop?
3) How can corporate-NGO relationships inform marketing decision making?
1. Under what conditions will consumers engage in ethical consumerism?
2) What are the marketing challenges of serving the bop?
3) How can corporate-NGO relationships inform marketing decision making?
How can the academic endeavors in Marketing (research, teaching, and public engagement) be channeled to maximize the positive impact on practice?
Does It Pay to Be Good (PDF)
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