Holistic Marketing Management, Volume 8, Issue 1, Year 2018 by Holistic Marketing Management

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ShopperMar k et i ng:Gi v i ngBac kCons umerSal esPr omot i ons t hei rChar ac t erofEx cept i on LéonF .WEGNEZ( bycour t es yof )

TheI s s ue3,Vol .XI I ,201 7ofourPar t nerJ our nal ,„ Mar k et i ngSc i ence andI ns pi r at i ons ” ,Comeni usUni v er s i t yi nBr at i s l av a,Sl ov ak i a TheodorPURCĂREA

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Editorial Board of “Holistic Marketing Management” (A refereed journal published four times annually by the School of Management-Marketing of the Romanian-American University) Editor-in-Chief Theodor Valentin PURCĂREA

Bernd HALLIER

John SAEE

John L. STANTON

Léon F. WEGNEZ

William PERTTULA Levent ALTINAY

Andrew KILNER Dana ZADRAZILOVA Riccardo BELTRAMO Sinisa ZARIC Gabriela SABĂU Hélène NIKOLOPOULOU Vasa LÁSZLÓ Peter STARCHON John MURRAY Kamil PÍCHA Irena JINDRICHOVSKA Holistic Marketing Management

President of European Retail Academy; President of EuCVoT, Member of the Astana Economic Scientists Club; Former Managing Director EHI Retail Institute, Germany, Chairman of the Advisory Board of EuroShop, Chairman of the Board of the Orgainvent, Trustee of EHI Retail Institute at GLOBALG.A.P. President - Association of Global Management Studies (USA); Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues & Former Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Management Systems, USA; Australian Graduate School of Entrepreneurship, the Faculty of Business and Enterprise, Swinburne University of Technology; Member of France’s National Academy of Scientific Research (CNRS); Director - ESB International Teaching and Research Exchanges, Reutlingen University, Germany Professor of Food Marketing, Erivan K. Haub School of Business, Saint Joseph’s University Philadelphia, USA; Director, Institute of Food Products Marketing, Editor, Journal of Food Products Marketing; Hall of Fame of the European Retail Academy, Honored Personality 2016 Secretary General, International Association of the Distributive Trade, AIDA Brussels; Member of France’s Academy of Commercial Sciences; Doctor Honoris Causa of NUPSPA (SNSPA) Bucharest; Hall of Fame of the European Retail Academy, Honored Personality 2015 Internet Marketing Professor, College of Business, San Francisco State University, USA Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship, Research Area Leader, Oxford School of Hospitality Management, Faculty of Business, Oxford Brookes University, UK First MBA Director at the Rennes Graduate School of Business in France; Director of RAFME Research into Management Excellence; PhD (Cambridge), MBA (City, London) Faculty of International Economic Relations, University of Economics, Prague, Czech Republic University of Turin, Italy University of Belgrade, Yugoslavia Memorial University, Grenfell Campus, Corner Brook, Canada University of Lille 3, France Szent Istvan University, Hungary Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia Faculty of Business, Dublin Institute of Technology, Ireland Faculty of Economics, University of South Bohemia in Ceske Budejovice Deputy Head of Department of Business Economics, University of Economics 1

Norbert HAYDAM Constantin ROŞCA Hans ZWAGA Roxana CODITA Dumitru MIRON Valeriu IOAN-FRANC Iacob CĂTOIU Virgil BALAURE Gheorghe ORZAN Luigi DUMITRESCU Marius D. POP Petru FILIP

Ion VOICU SUCALA Virgil POPA Alexandru NEDELEA Olguța Anca ORZAN Ana-Maria PREDA Ovidiu FOLCUȚ Doinița CIOCÎRLAN Marius Dan DALOTĂ Mihai PAPUC Gheorghe ILIESCU Costel NEGRICEA Alexandru IONESCU Tudor EDU Olga POTECEA Oana PREDA Nicoleta DUMITRU Monica Paula RAȚIU Elisabeta Andreea BUDACIA

and Management, Prague, Czech Republic Faculty of Business, Marketing Department, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, South Africa President of Romanian Scientific Society of Management - SSMAR Kemi-Tornio University of Applied Sciences, Finland Technische Universität München, TUM School of Management Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest National Institute for Economic Research, Romanian Academy; Romanian Marketing Association; Romanian Distribution Committee Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca Dimitrie Cantemir University, Bucharest Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Management and Economic Engineering Department; University of Glasgow, UK, College of Social Sciences, School of Social & Political Sciences; Managing Editor, Review of Management and Economic Engineering Valahia University of Târgovişte Ştefan cel Mare University of Suceava Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy Bucharest Romanian-American University Romanian-American University Romanian-American University Romanian-American University Romanian-American University Romanian-American University Romanian-American University Romanian-American University Romanian-American University Romanian-American University Romanian-American University Romanian-American University Romanian-American University Romanian-American University

Associate Editors Diana SOCA Irina PURCĂREA Dan SMEDESCU Art Designer Director Alexandru BEJAN

Holistic Marketing Management

“Holistic Marketing Management” (A refereed journal published four times annually by the School of Management-Marketing of the Romanian-American University) Volume 8, Issue 1, Year 2018

Contents

Theodor Valentin PURCĂREA - Editorial: Direct-To-Consumer (DTC) Marketing Redivivus. Lessons to Learn for CMOs from DTC Companies.……………………………..4

Andrew KILNER - Excessive offer of services & production/import of goods (comments based on the situation in France but is also pertinent to very many other countries)........8 Costel Iliuță NEGRICEA - Digital Marketers and the Challenge of Optimizing Omni channel CX…...11 Ioan Matei PURCĂREA Bernd HALLIER (by courtesy of) - Barcoding, GlobalG.A.P., and Tracing/Tracking ………………...18 Theodor PURCĂREA - Developing Marketing Capabilities by Mapping Customer Journey and Employer Journey, Considering the Blurring of Boundaries between Marketing, Technology and Management………………………………………………....22 Léon F. WEGNEZ (by courtesy of) – Shopper Marketing: Giving Back Consumer Sales Promotions their Character of Exception…………………………………….45 Theodor PURCĂREA - The Issue 3, Vol. XII, 2017 of our Partner Journal, „Marketing Science and Inspirations”, Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia..………………...47

Isabelle WEGNEZ (by courtesy of) - Wonderbox, a Rare and Magical Premium Brand.…..…………..50

The responsibility for the contents of the scientific and the authenticity of the published materials and opinions expressed rests with the author.

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Editorial: Direct-To-Consumer (DTC) Marketing Redivivus. Lessons to Learn for CMOs from DTC Companies Marketers are communicating with their targets throughout the customer journey, searching for ways to meet customers’ changing needs, ensuring guidance and selling the way customers want to buy, building engaging brands and content, enhancing the overall customer experience, including personalization of digital experience, continually updating a comprehensive view of the customer. Companies’ growth is imperative but difficult, the basis for growth being understanding demand, whose heart is understanding why consumers want what they want, as demonstrated by the reputed Boston Consulting Group (BCG) which recommended to connect a product with the consumer’s emotional and functional needs. According to BCG, in order to quicker reset on a path for improved growth, profitability, and value creation it is necessary to get quicker a clear picture of where the company’s true opportunities lie.1 Exactly two years ago BCG attracted the attention on “The Winner-Take-All Digital World for CPG”,2 while discussing the challenges faced by the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry. And in January 2017, a product marketing manager at Stibo Systems (the provider of STEP, a multi-domain master data management platform) showed that CPG is already into what BCG calls “1-5-10” territory, much of that digital growth coming from DTC channels, and pointed out some significant considerations (such as: achieving enterprise buy-in; driving technical & operational alignment; navigating channel conflict; shifting marketing mindset; nailing data management) for any brand, CPG and food manufacturer tackling a DTC initiative.3 At the end of September last year, a Forbes Contributor highlighted the rise of DTC marketing within the context in which branded manufacturers are taking into account the impact of the DTC marketing tactics on various channels, managing accordingly the channel conflict (by using tactics such as: exclusive offers, free giveaways, and bundles and kits). There were given some examples of popular direct-to-consumer digital strategies (third-party sites, mobile apps, and customized content).4 A year before, in the spring of 2016, and also in Forbes, it was shown that this direct selling model is key, for example, for a company like Tesla operating in the niche space of luxury electric vehicles which are best sold in a store-front based environment.5 While in the same period, Market Realist, a leading provider of institutional-quality investment research 1

Bolden, D. et all. (2016). Identifying the Sources of Demand to Fuel Growth. BCG, July 26. Retrieved from https://www.bcg.com/publications/2016/marketing-sales-brand-strategy-identifying-sources-of-demand-fuel-growth.aspx 2 Black, B. (2016). The Winner-Take-All Digital World for CPG. BCG, March 10. Retrieved from https://www.bcg.com/publications/2016/winner-take-all-digital-world-for-cpg.aspx 3 Peck, D. (2017). The 5 Biggest Factors for Direct-to-Consumer Success. Stibo Systems, January 03. Retrieved from http://blog.stibosystems.com/the-5-biggest-factors-for-direct-to-consumer-success 4 Grosman, L. (2017). The Rise Of Direct-To-Consumer Marketing. Forbes, Sep 27. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2017/09/27/the-rise-of-direct-to-consumer-marketing/ 5 Team, T. (2016). Is The Direct Sales Model Critical For Tesla Motors? Forbes, Mar 3. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2016/03/03/is-the-direct-sales-model-critical-for-tesla-motors/#

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and analytics, revealed that, for Nike, the contribution from the DTC channel (which includes sales made online on Nike.com and through its own retail stores) has been rising steadily over the past few quarters of 2015 (Nike having thanks to this channel a greater freedom to act on pricing, inventory, and merchandising decisions), the DTC channel being used to make both brand statements, and push sales of premium products.6 In July 2015, an Oracle’s representative showed that within any B2B vertical market DTC initiatives represent a huge opportunity for innovation, especially those B2B companies involved in distribution (by owning the customer relationship, obtaining better margins, and by building brand loyalty ).7 Within this final framework it was made reference also to a CB Insights picture showing a market landscape with the startups targeting consumers directly. In March 2017, Orderhouse, specialized in providing eCommerce experience with endto-end eCommerce solutions,8 highlighted the contribution of the DTC channel in improving customer shopping experience, and suggested 3 ways DTC (which was successfully incorporated by established brands like Disney, Nike and Apple) can develop company’s business model by considering the changing customers shopping habits (buying directly from a brand manufacturer’s web site), the changing logistics within the shift to online (by better controlling the supply chain operations), and the many advantages offered by DTC business to the consumer (such as: one-stop shopping experience, more knowledgeable customer service, closer relationship with the brand). While at the end of 2017 CB Insights made reference to the transformation of how people shop given the explosion of new direct-to-consumer (D2C) companies which by owning all of their customers’ data and maintaining end-to-end control with regard to the making, marketing, and distribution of their products are able to manufacture and ship these products at much lower costs in comparison to the traditional consumer brands.9 CB Insights identified the best practices to building a highly successful D2C retail company: designing the right product for consumers by turning simplicity into luxury in a product line; launching their products so as to get mass mindshare quickly; by building a better CX by building an end-to-end brand; and going viral by bake ubiquity and virality into a physical product. Also at the end of the last year, a representative of CIPS, the premier global organisation serving the procurement and supply profession (dedicated to promoting best practice), expressed the opinion that in order to make the DTC sales model work it is necessary: to better understand that one of the critical things a business needs to create value is that link with the customer (as 6

Soni, P. (2016). Why Is Nike Focusing on the Direct-To-Consumer Channel? Mar 15. Retrieved from https://marketrealist.com/2016/03/nikes-focusing-higher-dtc-channel-growth? 7 Hanlon, Z. (2016). Why Direct-to-Consumer Is a Powerful Business Model for B2B Companies, Oracxle Blog. December 8, 2016. Retrieved from https://blogs.oracle.com/cx/why-direct-to-consumer-is-a-powerful-business-model-for-b2b-companies-v2 8 D’Errico, M. (2017). 3 Ways DTC is Blowing Up Your Business Model. Orderhouse, March 13. Retrieved from http://www.orderhouse.com/blog/3-ways-dtc-is-blowing-up-your-business-model 9 CB Insights (2017). We Analyzed 9 Of The Biggest Direct-to-Consumer Success Stories To Figure Out The Secrets to Their Growth - Here’s What We Learned. December 14. Retrieved from https://www.cbinsights.com/research/direct-to-consumerretail-strategies/

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recommended by Richard Wilding, Professor of supply chain strategy at the reputed Cranfield School of Management), getting very good insight by dealing directly with him; to overcome some supply chain obstacles (such as the cost of handling and logistics for single-pick items, arranging customer returns until a bigger size is achieved etc.).10 Just a month before we find out from the reputed ADWEK thanks to an Accenture Interactive’s contribution that entire industries are disrupted by great customer experiences and innovative marketing touches delivered by today’s DTC upstarts (such as: Warby Parker, Glossier, Casper, Everlane and Harry’s) a competitive edge over established brands. Within this context, the President of Intelligent Marketing Operations at Accenture, Nikki Mendonça, made reference both to smart operational algorithms built by the successful DTC companies and delivering continuous optimization in the purchase journey, and to the necessary skills for the CMO and the CMO’s team, such as to be always on and frictionless, ensuring brand-marketing success by making data-driven decisions. It is also worth mentioning that a study conducted by Deloitte Canada revealed that: the direct-to-customer approaches are an accessible strategy for any established or emerging brands brand thanks to the digital tools and platforms; every brand can be enabled to control CX and deepen their relationship through data driven insights by a digital direct approach; a range of benefits across financial, operational and market dimensions (as shown in the figure below) can be delivered by capitalizing on today’s digital tools and platforms to develop a DTC capability: 11

Creasey, S. (2017). Does the direct-to-consumer sales model work? CIPS, Supply chain, Transformation, 1 December. Retrieved from https://www.cips.org/supply-management/analysis/2017/december/cutting-out-the-middle-man-does-thedirect-to-consumer-sales-model-work/ 11 Gregory, J. et all. (n.d). Going digital, going direct. Digital strategies to help brands connect with today’s consumer. Deloitte Canada, Deloitte’s Performance Enhancement team, pp. 3-4, 8-9, 15. Retrieved from https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/ca/Documents/consumer-business/ca-en-consumer-business-going-digitalgoing-direct.pdf

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Figure 1: General opportunity, Source: Going digital, going direct. Deloitte Canada, p. 9 (work cited)

Deloitte Canadaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s representatives also underlined that the DTC brands are empowered by the digital technologies to reclaim the customer relationship, determining a shift in the balance of power between them and retailers. With regard to the above mentioned shift, it is useful to remember that in the reputed Harvard Business Review, last year, the gap between the growing interest of brands in D2C models, one hand, and the use of the traditional distribution channels and the relation with the retailers carrying the brand, on the other hand was highlighted.12 The authors of the article, representing L.E.K. Consulting, identified seven tactics to bridge this gap used by the pioneering brands in order to arrive at an effective digital strategy, and concluded that the digital agility (varying from brand to brand) will be someday soon as important to consumer brands as traditional capabilities (such as brand-building, new product development, and distribution). Coming back to BCGâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s approach, it is worth remembering that: customer engagement with the help of digital marketing is a recognized reality by leading companies, considering the opportunity of accessing adequate real-time data, building Omni channel relationships with customers, and easily bringing into effective action multiple concepts and assembling real-time feedback from their customers;13 much more, as digital capability is considered being critical for growth and competitiveness, it is important to better understand how to use technology to achieve autonomization and emergence, reinventing this way the enterprise operating model.14 There is a real need of aligning marketing and sales in the current digital world of customers overwhelmed by a lack of time and too much choice, which involves the right technology, the right action in the right moment etc. and a right customer experience across all changing marketing channels. Theodor Valentin PurcÄ&#x192;rea Editor-in-Chief

Haslehurst. R. et all. (2017). How consumer brands can connect with customers in a changing retail landscape. Harvard Business Review, August 04. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2017/08/how-consumer-brands-can-connect-with-customers-ina-changing-retail-landscape 13 Schuuring, M. et all. (2017).The Digital Marketing Revolution Has Only Just Begun. BCG, May 10. Retrieved from https://www.bcg.com/publications/2017/sales-consumer-insights-digital-marketing-revolution-has-only-just-begun.aspx 14 Reeves, M. and Whitaker, K. (2018). Reinventing the Enterprise - Digitally. Harnessing Autonomization and Emergence. BCG, February 13. Retrieved from https://www.bcg.com/publications/2018/reinventing-enterprise-digitally.aspx

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Excessive offer of services & production/import of goods (Comments based on the situation in France but is also pertinent to very many other countries)

Andrew KILNER * email contact rafme2000@yahoo.com **http:// rafme.homestead.com ***http://www.businessexpertpress.com/books/achieving-excellence-management-identifying-and-learningbad-practices

Abstract The factor mentioned in the title of this article was touched upon in the Economics section of the article published in the December 2017 issue of Holistic Marketing Management, and is constantly increasing in practice.15 People are being swamped with offers of products (especially clothing & household goods), far greater than the real demand and which distributors may eventually have to sell off in more & more frequent “sales” at discounts of up to 70%. Keywords: Excessive Offer; Services & Production; Import of Goods JEL Classification: L81; M31; M37

Most of the imported products were produced in third world countries where the workers earn miserable wages permitting western distributors to still make a small profit. However, on home produced goods such as food (milk, pork…), the 15

Kilner, A. (2017). The Growing Impact of the Macro Environment. “Holistic Marketing Management” Journal, December, Volume 7, Issue 4, pp. 10-19. Available at http://holisticmarketingmanagement.ro/RePEc/hmm/v7i4/2.pdf Holistic Marketing Management

producers are being terribly squeezed by the large distributors, forcing many to blockade shopping outlets in order to avoid bankrupcy or in extreme cases even to be driven to suicide. Despite this situation, large shopping centers are continuing to open thus increasing competition between the various outlets - particularly serious for the isolated ones in town centers where parking is difficult. And in addition, the industry has not yet taken much account of current pressures against obsolescence, product sharing or repair workshops which obviously will somewhat reduce potential demand. In the world wide context, the above scenario is taking place at the same time as the inability of millions of people to purchase many of these goods because they lack the money to pay even the small manufacturing costs plus the additional margin which would make distributior's effort sufficiently worthwhile. On the human side, the constant pressure on margins also has an effect on shop staff, increasingly working under stress & low wages. [However, a first welcome move against this situation has just been announced by Carrefour in a planned closure of up to 2000 outlets, but of course with the unfortunate consequence of many job losses. At the same time there has been increasing advertising for Carrefour Bank!] This last comment leads neatly into services where it seems everyone (eg. Peugeot) is trying to develop its own bank. The strongest effort had so far been made by insurance companies-and seen the reverse move of banks into their sector. In services, the client incentives are also made on price but in addition on free months of subscription and on quality of service-something difficult to establish prior to engagement. Insurance is particularly difficult to assess:what use is it paying 20% less in premiums if claims may take several months to be (reluctantly) settled? The efficiency of household services like repairs is also difficult to predict without personal recommendation and yet personal emails are inundated with offers for them or for (independent?) advisors for all kinds of transaction. The trend for doing things oneself,begun many years ago with the opening of DIY stores,is now thanks to internet invading non material services like agencies for Holistic Marketing Management

travel,house purchase,personal finance. In both instances workers or salaried staff who lost their posts as employees are now trying to make a living as independents but their offer exceeds private client demands. Overall, we are again affected by the problem of employment. With static or reduced production and less use of external service providers, what work will people be doing? The current excitement is for start-ups of new inventions but most of these, using digital applications, are in frivolous rather than essential areas which could create big markets to interest distributors, and to employ more people as did the industries of the past. Unfortunately, the essential sectors where demand is greatest (like education, health services, renewal/re-construction of lodgings) depend on higher state funding which is lacking in most countries. Andrew Kilner https://rafme.homestead.com

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Digital Marketers and the Challenge of Optimizing Omni channel CX Dr. Costel IliuČ&#x203A;Ä&#x192; NEGRICEA Ioan Matei PURCÄ&#x201A;REA

Abstract Placed at the intersection of digital transformation with CX, digital marketers are focusing on differentiating on digital CX in a fast changing environment in which integral to competitiveness are both digital technology and CX. Omni channel marketing is shopper-based and must ensure a seamless CX, acting accordingly in recognizable touchpoints with customers, ensuring the presence of brands where the customer is and offering an adequate Omni channel CX, tailoring it more effectively and finally improving customer retention. Digital marketers do also know how important paying attention to a humanized DCX is while optimizing Omni channel CX, seeing customers as individual people within the context of both integrating CX with the business model and the operational processes, and of rethinking the execution. Keywords: Digital Marketers; Omni channel marketing; Omni channel CX JEL Classification: L86; M15; M31; O33

Placed at the intersection of digital transformation with CX, digital marketers are focusing on differentiating on DCX

Digital media consumption is a reality, and the overload of digital media consumption determined diminished social awareness and lack of empathy, in other words affecting the human interaction, many of us being made less social by this social media addiction. Within the current pledge for digital wellness, the need of creating an environment allowing an adequate usage of digital devices, while ensuring the human connection and natural space, was underlined. (Local Measure, 2018) Digital transformation trends are affecting marketing, marketers being under the pressure of adjusting to an increasingly digital market, digitization being at the core of the modern workplace. (Target Marketing Magazine, 2018) As clearly shown in the last years, marketers are differentiating (competitors trying to create the ideal experience to their customers) on digital customer experience (DCX), considering their always connected and empowered digital customers, the usage of smartphones Holistic Marketing Management

as the first screen within mobile devices, the large access at connected technologies (wearables and the Internet of Things), and the last but not the least the so-called “micro moments” (customers’ real-time interactions – with specific intents – with brands across all online and offline channels).What presupposes creating a digital customer journey map involving both basic tips (clear goals, identified buyer personas, feedback gathered from stakeholders, crossfunctional team, smart data) and advanced tips (single touch points defined, aspects below the line of visibility, identified moments of truth, move beyond mapping). (Neosperience Team, 2016) In the opinion of the Oracle’s representatives, for example, within the current chaotic digital environment (fast increasing customer expectations, channel proliferation, more competition) marketing departments need distributed marketing solutions which overcomes organizational complexity, one of these being the set of streamlined apps for specific tasks and roles provided by the Oracle Marketing Cloud, and by collaborating throughout the entire campaign creation process with their corporate counterparts marketers can amplify their collective knowledge. This interactive process orchestration ensures both individual responsibility and corporate quality control. (Miller, 2017) Recognized by Gartner as a leader in the Digital Marketing industry (according to Gartner’s 2017 Magic Quadrant for Digital Marketing Hubs), Oracle (whose Oracle Marketing Cloud is a leader in the CX category for the third consecutive report) is working on centralizing all interactions with customers (many touch points living outside the marketer’s purview) and the resulting customer data on a unified CX platform in order to attain the true customer centricity. (Miller, 2017) According to a McKinsey’s February 2018 survey, the implementation of digital solutions was involved by the most recent major organizational transformations, the digital transformations (setup; piloting; scaling and implementation; sustaining changes) requiring: scope and scale; new skill sets and resources; new approaches (particularly for assessment). And within the need of quickly responding to a fast changing environment, the implementation of the digital transformation involves a focus on KPIs (research findings revealing that this way the change effort’s success being four times likelier). (Lindsay, B. et all. 2018) But as a great Friend of the Romanian-American University argued recently, the vision and guidance for change come from a better understanding of customers, integral to competitiveness today being both digital technology and CX, the success of the digitization initiatives being increased by CX, which is the reason for change. (Latib, 2018) It is worth mentioning within this context that recognized as the leading customer intelligence platform in the tourism and hospitality sectors, Local Measure has recently released a hotel industry guide to the technologies shaping today’s guest experience. (Frenkel, 2018) But before that, the VP EMEA of Local Measure highlighted Local Measure’s recommendation for a hotel’s digital strategy considering a holistic view of digital across the organisation so as to drive real value to the hotel proposition and contribute accordingly to hotel’s revenue. (West, 2018) Holistic Marketing Management

They suggested within this framework a digital strategy matrix for hotels as shown in the table below: Tabel 1: Digital Strategy Matrix for Hotels, Local Measure

Source: West, M. (2018). Why Hotels Need a Digital Strategy (work cited)

As we can see from this matrix they have mapped three types of objectives (reach – growing the size of hotel’s audience; retention – customers’ engagement/interaction to keep them; direct or indirect revenue) against three sides of the guest journey (pre, during and post stay – with examples of digital activities which could be carried out). Of course, the digital strategy must be supported by adequate digital tactics.

Omni channel marketing and Omni channel CX

As shown by Criteo, Omni channel marketing is shopper-based, trying to make the shopper experience as easy as possible by a consistent engagement no matter the touchpoint, the Omni channel strategy (having data as its main challenge) ensuring a seamless shopping experience. (Pruett, 2017) According to Emarsys, Omni channel marketing ensures a seamless CX on the basis of a multi-channel sales approach providing an integrated shopping experience, (Tjepkema, n.d.) in other words creating an Omni channel CX by using multichannel marketing solutions and ensuring that customers remain at the heart of all personalised communication. (Timlin, n.d.) As shown by Shopify: multi-channel marketing means offering customers the choice to buy on whatever channel they prefer (each channel existing as a separate purchase opportunity in a multi-channel strategy), then focusing on the most lucrative channels (see the figure below); in Omni channel (customer lying at the center) every customer interaction changes

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overall CX of a brand, companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s approach to customers being aligned to their online and offline actions. (Orendorff, 2017)

Figure 1: Omni channel vs. Multi-channel, Shopify Source: Orendorff, A. (2017) (work cited)

A recent study on Omni channel retail conducted by Big Commerce (the #1 SaaS B2B ecommerce platform for enterprise brands; chosen by Fortune 500 and Internet Retailer 1000 brands to power exceptional shopping experiences, grow sales and improve performance across all their channels) and Kelton Global approached the Omni channel American consumer behavior, underlining from the very beginning that Omni-channel marketing becomes more about providing the Omni channel CX, showing how consumers buy in store, online (online shopping being an indispensable part of their life) and on marketplaces, they being no longer loyal to a single brand or type of shopping. In the opinion of the surveyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s authors, a better understanding of the modern consumer allows companies to be penetrated by the Omni channel CX and to act accordingly in recognizable touchpoints with their customers. When purchasing, the American shopper is influenced mainly by convenience and price, while where he shops is being influenced by price, shipping cost and speed, and discount offers, which means that he is placing more value on the overall experience he had with a brand. On the other hand, with regard to what he wants more of from online stores, the American shopper (who in general dislikes not being able to touch, feel or try out a product) appreciates the online stores recreating the inperson buying experience using images, reviews, comparisons, testimonials or video. Accordingly, retailers need to be where the customer is (on mobile, desktop, in-store while browsing or within apps, on social), offering an adequate Omni channel CX.

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Criteo’s quarterly Global Commerce Report, compiling mobile commerce data from retailers and brands around the world (Q4 2017), showed how mobile commerce growth keeps increasing and revealed some significant key findings such as: • the increasing of Smartphone Commerce Transactions in North America (13% YoY), shoppers remaining active on mobile, and 67% of transactions on mobile devices (for retailers who generate sales on both mobile web and in-app) being generated by advertisers with a shopping app; Omni channel shoppers represent 7% of all shoppers for Omni channel retailers, but generate 27% of all their sales; • the increasing of Smartphone Commerce Transactions in Europe (21% YoY), the transactions on mobile and desktop being split 50-50, and retailers with a shopping app generating 44% of their sales on mobile devices; as in North America, European Omni channel shoppers represent 7% of all shoppers but generate 27% of all Omni channel retailers’ sales; • it’s imperative for retailers to invest in their mobile web and app strategies within the context of continuous increasing of mobile commerce (and especially in-app transactions). As the Editor in Chief at SaleCycle underlined very recently, loyal customers are more likely to download apps (for example, retailers can add value by sending adequate in-app notifications), their CX being tailored more effectively with the help of these apps allowing retailers to better understand product trends and individual customer behavior and creating on this basis a personalised shopping experience. (Charlton, 2018) And that means finally improved customer retention. Coming back to the opinions expressed by Emarsys, it is worth to remember that the mobile marketers are empowered to deliver critical increases in traffic, leads, engagement, and revenue by ensuring a smart integration of mobile apps and mobile marketing strategies into an Omni channel experience. (Tjepkema, n.d.)

Paying attention to a humanized DCX while optimizing Omni channel CX

The Co-founder and CEO of NGDATA pledged from the beginning of this year for humanizing CX by being people-based, understanding every customer, and putting insights into seamless actions occurring in real-time across every channel, every touchpoint with a customer, continuously learning from every interaction (including by becoming AI-driven), fueling longterm customer relationships and loyalty through these driven connected experiences and creating long-term customer value. (Burgelman, 2018) He showed that by remembering customers’ names, preferences, purchase history, and providing relevant info in real-time etc. customer are feeling valued.

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Also at the beginning of this year the CEO of Leader NetworksIn 2018, attracted the attention on the real need of better predicting customer needs and preferences by seeing customers as individual people, gaining deeper customer insight based on cultural influences and social interaction with the help of anthropology and sociology. (DiMauro, 2018) And this within the context of integrating CX with the business model and the operational processes, of recognizing the online communities as the center of the customer journey, of yielding greater personalization by applying AI to marketing and sales, of standardizing the digital performance metrics etc. There is also no novelty associated with the power of human interaction which canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be neglected and that in addition to digital channels an Omni channel strategy should always incorporate a human element. (Smith, 2018) As revealed by an OpinionLab (a Verint Company) 2016 survey, customers want direct person contact (around 4 in 5 customers), expect a phone number on a website (3 in 4 customers) and think they get better service in-person (more than 6 in 10 customers).

Conclusions

There is no doubt that Omni channel digital marketing strategies must reflect the new way of competing within the continuous intertwining of the digital with customersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; lives. Which involves a holistic view of what digital transformation means, a better understanding of the new economic realities of the value chains under digital pressure, developing a testing, learning and adapting advantage, moving ahead, digitizing the current business and innovating the model, rethinking the execution, trying to reach the increasing customer base by creating value for it, optimizing DCX and ensuring a seamless consistent and gratifying Omni channel CX.

References Big Commerce and Kelton Global (2017). Omni-Channel Retail in 2017. What Brands Need to Know and Modern Consumer Shopping Habits. Retrieved from https://grow.bigcommerce.com/rs/695-JJT-333/images/the-omnichannel-selling-guide.pdf Burgelman, L. (2018). 5 Keys to Humanizing the Digital Customer Experience. CustomerThink, January 22. Retrieved from http://customerthink.com/5-keys-to-humanizing-the-digital-customer-experience/? Charlton, G. (2018). Mobile Apps Are Still Important for Retailers: Stats, 27th February. Retrieved from https://blog.salecycle.com/featured/mobile-apps-still-important-retailers-stats/ Criteo (2018). Mobile Commerce Growth 2017: +13% Sales YoY, 67% of Sales Happen In-App & More, February 27. Retrieved from https://www.criteo.com/insights/mobile-commerce-q4-2017/

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DiMauro, V. (2018). 10 Digital Marketing Predictions for 2018. CustomerThink, January 5. Retrieved from http://customerthink.com/10-digital-marketing-predictions-for-2018/? Frenkel, M. (2018). Just Released: The Guest Experience in Today’s Digital Hotel. Local Measure, February 23. Retrieved from https://www.hospitalitynet.org/news/4081184.html Latib, M. (2018). Which is more integral to success: Digitization or customer experience? Customerthink, February 1. Retrieved from http://customerthink.com/which-is-more-integral-to-success-digitization-or-customer-experience/ Lindsay, B. et all. (2018). How the implementation of organizational change is evolving Survey February 2018. Online survey from April 18 to April 28, 2017. Retrieved from https://www.mckinsey.com/businessfunctions/mckinsey-implementation/our-insights/how-the-implementation-of-organizational-change-is-evolving? Local Measure (2018). 3 Digital Wellness Resolutions, Local Measure, Trends. Retrieved from https://www.localmeasure.com/resources/trends/3-digital-wellness-resolutions? Miller, A. (2017). Distributed Marketing for the Modern Marketer, Blogs Oracle, December 19. Retrieved from https://blogs.oracle.com/marketingcloud/distributed-marketing-for-the-modern-marketer Miller, A. (2017). Gartner Names Oracle Marketing Cloud a Leader in Digital Marketing Hubs - for the 3rd Consecutive Report! Blogs Oracle, February 23. Retrieved from https://blogs.oracle.com/marketingcloud/gartnernames-oracle-marketing-cloud-a-leader-in-digital-marketing-hubs-for-the-3rd-consecutive-reportJoin the discussion Neosperience Team (2016). 5 (+5) Tips To Start Mapping The Digital Customer Journey, The Digital Customer Experience Blog, Feb 15, 2016. Retrieved from https://blog.neosperience.com/5-5-tips-to-start-mapping-the-digitalcustomer-journey Orendorff, A. (2017). Omni-Channel vs Multi-Channel: What is the Difference and Why Does It Matter? Jul 25. Retrieved from https://www.shopify.com/enterprise/omni-channel-vs-multi-channel Pruett, M. (2017). Omnichannel vs Multichannel Marketing: The Key Differences, October 19. Retrieved from https://www.criteo.com/insights/omnichannel-vs-multichannel/ Target Marketing Magazine (2018). 3 “Digitization” Trends Shaping Modern Marketing, “Target Marketing Webinars”, targetmarketingmag.com, February 13, 2018, Panel discussion with Brandon Jensen, Director of Marketing Operations at Workfront, Jennifer Johnson, Sr. Web Marketing Program Manager at Informatica, and Jonas Sjoquist, Senior Manager, Accenture Timlin, A. (n.d.). Omnichannel Marketing vs. Multichannel Marketing: What’s the Difference? Retrieved from: https://www.emarsys.com/en/resources/blog/omni-channel-versus-multi-channel-marketing-alex-timlin/ Tjepkema, L. (n.d.). 4 Important Differences Between Multi-Channel & Omnichannel Marketing. Retrieved from https://www.emarsys.com/en-sg/resources/blog/multi-channel-marketing-omnichannel-2/ Tjepkema, L. (n.d.) 3 Ways Your Mobile App Can Fit into Your Omnichannel Strategy. Retrieved from https://www.emarsys.com/en-sg/resources/blog/mobile-app-omnichannel-strategy-2/ Smith, A. (2018). Omnichannel experiences are critical but must drive tangible business benefits to be successful. CustomerThink, January 18. Retrieved from http://customerthink.com/omnichannel-experiences-are-critical-butmust-drive-tangible-business-benefits-to-be-successful/? West, M. (2018). Why Hotels Need a Digital Strategy, January. Retrieved from https://www.localmeasure.com/resources/thought-leadership-series/hotels-need-digital-strategy? *** A powerful B2B ecommerce platform. Retrieved from https://www.bigcommerce.com/b2b-ecommerceplatform/

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Barcoding, GlobalG.A.P., and Tracing/Tracking Bernd HALLIER

Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier and RAU Rector Ovidiu Folcuţ Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier, President of the European Retail Academy (ERA) is a distinguished Member of the Editorial Board of our “Holistic Marketing Management” Journal (he is also an Honorary Member of the Romanian Scientific Society of Management - SSMAR). He is strongly supporting the recently created Thematic University Network for Research and Knowledge Penetration along the Total Supply Chain from farm to fork (TUN EQA). It is well-known that based on the preparations for the 200 years Anniversary of the University of Bonn, the two international networks EQA (Education Qualification Alliance) and ERA (European Retail Academy) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU, on October 8, 2017, at the world-leading Food Exhibition ANUGA in Cologne, Germany) to institutionalize this Thematic University Network conceived as an excellent platform for global dialogue. Vision and Mission of TUN were explained jointly by Prof. Dr. Brigitte Petersen, President of the International Center for Food Chain and Network Research (FoodNetCenter Bonn, founded in 2006 as interdisciplinary center of the University of Bonn, and having as main objectives: interdisciplinarity; contribution to university profile; outstanding research & development; Focus Groups: Food Waste, One Health, Responsible System Information) and Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier (ERA). The MOU was signed by the Chairman of the Board of EQA, Christian Gruetters and Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier for ERA. It is also worth remembering that Professor Bernd Hallier has participated to a series of Round Tables and Public Lectures (The intertwine of Culture and Trade; Introduction of the European Retail Academy; Branding: the successful example of EuroShop; Evolution Tornado Retail; the Global House of Harmony; Lifelong-Learning; Environmental Retail Management) organized at the Romanian-American University. It is well-known that Professor Bernd Hallier began many years ago a fruitful collaboration with the prestigious Professor Klaus Toepfer (former Federal German Minister for Environment, former director of the United Nations Environment Program UNEP and initiator of the Kyoto Protocol), and with Dr. Angela Merkel (today Chancellor of the Federal Republic, and who pushed “environment” to become a high political issue during the EU-Presidency of Germany, in 2007). The agenda of the productive meeting between Professor Ovidiu Folcuţ, Rector of the Romanian-American University (RAU) and Professor Bernd Hallier, on the occasion of his last visit in Romania,included significant items of discussion, such as: the international transfer of know-how between business and universities, bringing more transparency on retail-research and retail-education; the actual need of anticipating skill needs in the commerce sector, taking into account the attention to be paid to the evaluation of philosophies offered by the steady upgrade of retail-technologies; the developing cooperation between Germany and Eastern markets. Within this context, Professor Bernd Hallier introduced the challenging volume “Food Waste Management” (based on an EU-project FORWARD), the reduction of food waste being seen as an important lever for achieving global food security, freeing up finite resources for other uses, diminishing environmental risks and avoiding financial losses (not forgetting to suggest from the very beginning the distinction between “food loss” and “food waste”). It was underlined, for example, that: there are substantial losses along the stages of the food chain (agricultural production, post-harvest handling and storage, processing and packaging, distribution, and consumption); the reduction of food losses is seen as an important starting point for achieving global food security, freeing up finite resources for other uses, diminishing environmental risks and avoiding financial losses.

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Barcoding Mass distribution via self-service like since the 70ies of the last century in the USA and Western Europe would have been not possible without product-identification by barcodes and scanning in the cash-zones of supermarkets. Since 2005 the national bar-code institutions are harmonized towards a Global Standard (GS 1) worldwide: (see LINK Intro GS 1).

According to Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier certifications within the Thematic University Network Food knowledge about the main international Standard Setters are absolutely necessary because they are driving forces for modern distribution from farm to fork. GlobalG.A.P. One of the important internationally recognized standard-providers in the Agro-Sector is GlobalG.A.P. Its competences for the Total Supply Chain is reflected in its split of members in 12 percent coming from retail, 46 percent from the supply side and 42 percent associated members (see LINK). GlobalG.A.P. was started under the name of EurepG.A.P. as a pro-active food-security initiative for fruit and vegetables at the hype of the BSE-crisis. Twenty years later its successstory is documented by a special reader â&#x20AC;&#x201C; presented in the photo below by the CEO of GlobalG.A.P., Dr. Kristian Moeller and Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier. Holistic Marketing Management

Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier, President of ERA and Dr. Kristian Moeller, CEO of GlobalG.A.P. Tracing/Tracking Tracing/Tracking of cows became only relevant in Germany during and after the BSE/Mad Cow Disease in 1994/96. As an act of Civil Society the Workshop Meat of the EHI Retail Institute created together with the Central Marketing Association of the Agricultural Sector (CMA) the standard provider Orgainvent (read more: Orgainvent). In 1997 the EU Agriculture Council adapted the EHI/Orgainvent proposals and initiated the EU Regulations 820/97 and later the EU Regulation 1760/2000 to standardize tracing/tracking for cows and beef within the EU as well as for suppliers from outside of the EU. The YouTube TILS (Link) demonstrates the application of the system during the processing in the cutting house.

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Source: http://www.european-retail-academy.org/TUN/ Holistic Marketing Management

Developing Marketing Capabilities by Mapping Customer Journey and Employer Journey, Considering the Blurring of Boundaries between Marketing, Technology and Management Theodor Purcărea

Abstract Within the new business model, there is a reevaluation of the customer journey from end to end, making decisions on the basis of business analytics, consolidating the customer culture considering the long-term customer value delivery, measuring customer culture, integrating customer thinking across the business performance and customer perception. There are challenging lessons to learn with regard to putting the customer first or putting the employee first and put the customer second, delivering the brand promise consistently, knowing what is necessary to change in how the organization operates and relates to its customers, considering both the customer journey and the employer journey. As customers preferences for channels and technology are evolving, CMOs must keep the pace with the quickly evolution of the technology landscape, considering the democratization of marketing, marketing co-creation with customers, the Grand View of MarTech, and the modern marketing stack, implementing a MarTech strategy accordingly. There is no doubt about the need of using customer intelligence tools to create a better customer experience (CX), including with the help of the artificial intelligence (AI), and to drive customer-centric culture. And as CX and the customer success (CS) are considered being intrinsically connected and impacting each other, it is useful to consider, at the level of B2B companies (while also seeing the blurring line between B2C and B2B selling), the transition from the CS 1.0 to the CS 2.0, with impact on CX and on the implementation of a new type of officer in the company’s organizational structure, the Chief Customer Success Officer. Keywords: Customer and Employer Journey; MarTech Strategy; Customer Intelligence; Customer-First Marketing; Customer-Centric Marketing; Customer Success 2.0; CX JEL Classification: L84; L86; M31; M37; O33

A new business model, a new customer, and the contribution of AI in storytelling In the previous issue of our journal (HMM, Volume 7, Issue 4) we made reference to a Forrester consulting thought leadership paper commissioned by Genesys, released in November 2017 – entitled “Artificial Intelligence with the human touch. Blend AI with human agents to improve both customer and agent satisfaction” – and which revealed that: blending AI (AI solutions being adopted in order to improve both customer and agent satisfaction ahead of cost savings; these solutions better handling simple requests with greater efficiency) with human agents (who are still superior in understanding emotion and building trust, even excelling at conveying emotion and understanding context) allows enterprises to achieve the strengths of both (using each to its full benefit); there is already significant evidence regarding wide benefits, including improved customer experience and increased agent satisfaction and efficiency, one hand, and this transformation of enterprises by AI has extended to customer service, on the other hand.

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At the end of the same month, the reputed Software AG CEO Karl-Heinz Streibich underlined the significance of the step to set the standard for IIOT adoption – the foundation, in September 2017, of ADAptive Manufacturing Open Solutions (ADAMOS3) by leading visionary manufacturers from Germany, Singapore and Japan, with the view of jointly addressing the huge opportunities of the IIOT markets – within the context of: the arrival of AI; taking advantage of the digitalization within the Industry 4.0 (Industrial Internet), considering the customer interface, the customer feedback loop, social sentiment monitoring, the integration of external data sources etc. provided by IT; the need that every CEO must become a software expert (as every company – enabled to kick-start its own IIOT adventure by the APP factory provided by ADAMOS – must become a software company). (Streibich, 2017) Two years ago, in March 2016, McKinsey’s representatives underlined that in order to understand how to meaningfully improve company’s performance it is necessary to look at the customer experience (CX) through customer’s own eyes and along his entire journey (knowing what a customer journey entails: episodes, end-to-end experiences, language, channels, duration, repetition), beyond focusing on individual touchpoints across new channels, devices, applications, and more. There were highlighted six actions as being critical to managing customer-experience journeys (knowing that it is more likely that customers repeat a purchase, spend more, recommend to their friends, and stay with a company, if that company is delivering a distinctive journey experience). (Maechler, Neher and Park, 2016) More recently, in January 2018, McKinsey’s Barr Seitz launched the invitation of rethinking customer journeys with the next-generation operating model, and this as a conclusion of a very challenging talk with two colleagues – McKinsey’s senior partner Alex Singla and partner Elixabete Larrea Tamayo, coauthors of “The next-generation operating model for the digital world” – about the nextgeneration operating model within the digital way of life in industry after industry, where company leaders are facing the reevaluation of the customer journey from end to end. It was therefore interesting to find out that (as suggested by Elixabete Larrea Tamayo) an effective next-generation operating model presupposes to focus on building value and move away from the silo thinking: by organizing the company’s efforts around these end-to-end customer journeys and around some of the internal back-office processes; by applying technologies and operations capabilities to these end-to-end customer journeys in combination and in the right sequence. On the other hand, we all know the importance of a marketing story. What is new is the contribution of AI in storytelling (by sharpening stories and amplifying the emotional pull), the potential for machine–human collaboration in video storytelling to improve the storytelling process being investigated by The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab. (Chu, Dunn, Roy, Sands and Stevens) And thanks to a broader collaboration between MIT’s Lab for Social Machines and McKinsey’s Consumer Tech and Media team there were developed machine-learning models which reviewed thousands of videos and constructed emotional arcs for each one. As highlighted by the McKinsey’s representatives, they developed a method for Holistic Marketing Management

classifying stories into families of arcs (videos sharing the same emotional trajectory), which combines a clustering technique (“k-medoids”) with the process of dynamic time warping (which detects similarities between two video sequences varying in speed). Growing data scientists’ contribution to grow company’s analytics capability by connecting them to the world of domain experts. Mapping both customer journey and employer journey, and excelling at customer care In December 2017, McKinsey’s representatives explained how to withstand disruption and expand their shares of the value in their markets companies need to be enabled by a nextgeneration operating model which involves at the beginning to modify simultaneously the customer journeys (understanding all its facets), the business operations (making them more efficient and responsive so as to optimize the customer journeys), and the working methods, using accordingly integrated teams comfortable pursuing incremental gains on a continual basis. In other words, companies must race to catch up the digital-native companies that have already captured value by mastering the use of next-generation operating models. (Bollard, Duncan, Rangelov and Rohr, 2017) There are four types of decision questions addressed by business analytics (according to Gartner, 2015), these questions referring to: what happened (descriptive analytics); why did it happen (diagnostic analytics); what is likely to happen (predictive analytics); what should I do (prescriptive analytics). The reputed Professor Prof. Stijn Viaene approached – in a new article published in the European Business Review in November last year – the new challenges for executives and business leaders trying to remain relevant and appealing for customers moving at the speed of the Internet, by making decisions on the basis of business analytics (considering the competitive necessity of data-driven business decision-making) and offering accordingly a continuation of valuable customer experiences. Viaene showed that advanced business analytics (the business analytics capability developed over time project by project having as basis a robust data logistics platform providing data logistics support and supporting conversation management) allows breaking the trade-off between reach and richness, handling high-volume, high-velocity and high-variety data by investing in cost-effective digital capabilities, thinking in terms of end-to-end data logistics while considering the long-term customer value delivery, the exploration and exploitation logistics, and the need to connect the world of data scientists to the world of domain experts, and combine business and data modelling, data discovery, decision operationalization and cultivation skills etc. seamlessly working together as a team all through a project’s life (all along this project’s life the combination of customer desirability, operational feasibility and business viability being managed by the project teams). (Viaene, 2017) But considering the long-term customer value delivery presupposes to better understand the importance of the customer culture (changing culture being considered a long term business strategy). According to Chris Brown, Cofounder and CEO, MarketCulture Strategies (interviewed at the beginning of 2018 by Ian Golding), an organisation must believe in creating Holistic Marketing Management

value for customers, having its culture aligned to creating customer value being a condition to an effective marketing strategy. That is why it is important to have a tool to measure customer culture such as that developed by MarketCulture Strategies – the Market Responsiveness Index (MRI) – which measures three factors (mindset, behaviour and process), allows the assessment of the difference between customer focus and internal focus, aligning culture with business performance, customer perception and employee engagement, as shown in the figure below:

Figure 1: The Market Responsiveness Index (MRI), MarketCulture Strategies Source: Golding, I., The importance of customer culture – an interview with Chris Brown, February 5th, 2018 (work cited)

Brown argues that MRI allows: integrating customer thinking across the business, business performance and customer perception being both positively affected if the MRI measurement (MRI implementation taking approx. 6 weeks to put in place and min. 12 months to see the effect across the organisation) goes up; benchmarking a company versus the best companies in the world, considering the 8 disciplines of a customer culture (strategic alignment, customer insight, customer foresight, competitor insight, competitor foresight, peripheral vision, empowerment, collaboration) which drive profit. And as there is a strong relation between having a customer culture and the preoccupation of becoming sustainably customer centric, the above mentioned reputed Ian Golding brought in the same period of time and also in a column on CustomerThink two other arguments within this framework: (Golding, 2018) ▪ an interesting conversation with James Dodkins, a fellow Customer Experience Professional who will be publishing in 2018 a book entitled “Put Your Customers Second”, in which he documented why company’s employees must be treated in the way company wants them to treat its customers;

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▪ discussing the subject of putting the employee first with Chantel Botha (while working with him), one of the most prominent Customer Experience Professionals in South Africa, this partner introduced him to the concept of the “employer journey”, as shown below:

Figure 2: Employer Journey, Chantel Botha Source: Golding, I., Golding, I, Understanding the Employer Journey – The Employee Engagement Loop, January 29th, 2018 (work cited)

Golding shows that to implement this above mentioned framework of the “employee engagement loop” in order to build a customer centric culture by delivering the desired employee experience, a company has to follow six steps: to attract the right kind of employees into the business; to infuse the brand DNA as a never ending cycle of activity; to inspire excellence in everything its employees do; to encourage curiosity and learning from its employees; to also actively encourage innovation and co-creation from its employees; to reward (is not necessarily a monetary thing) its employees for the work they do to constantly improve the ability of its brand to meet the needs and expectations of its customers. Also thanks to Golding we find out a challenging “Customer Experience perspective” – coming from Manuela Pifani, introduced by him as “one of the most passionate, professional, capable CX Professionals” Golding has ever had the pleasure of coming into contact with – underlining among different aspects that CX must delivers the brand promise consistently, over time and strengthen this way the trust in the brand and customer loyalty, by knowing what is necessary to change in how the organisation operates and relates to its customers (well before starting to communicate to the customers the new brand promise, being necessary to strongly focus on designing the promised CX, building the right capabilities, aligning the whole organisation behind the brand promise delivery and empowering all fellow workers in organizations to support it end-to-end). (Golding, 2018) So, we can see that there are two types of journey mapping, considering both customer journey (in order to understand where companies’ customers are frustrated, and what might lead them to defect) and employer journey (which can lead to the customer friction), the last one Holistic Marketing Management

being critically important to customer experience. (Tincher, 2017) But to avoid that the customer journey maps end in failure it is necessary to also apply a solid methodology to a customer journey mapping project (involving a broad cross-functional team), such as Prosci’s ADKAR Change Management Model (Awareness of the need to change; Desire to change; Knowledge of what and how to change; Ability to change; Reinforcement of the change), because a company must both to be aware of the need to improve, and to want these change (which is made from the results obtained from the journey mapping project), and after that to create a better customer experience. (Tincher, 2018) And of course not forgetting that: customers want their problems solved quickly, before calling, one of the best ways to get and keep customers being Zero Call Resolution; (Tincher, 2016) cultivating Zero Call Resolution presupposes ensuring a customer experience seen by customer as seamless, and never perceiving an issue or reason for complaint, companies ensuring this way delight with the help of modeling tools and predictive analytics systems such as the Allegiance Spotlight™ data mining system (already six years old); (Mandel, 2015) as shown by MaritzCX (the combination of the Allegiance award-winning CX platform and Maritz Research strategic consulting services) the gaps between the desired customer experience (CX) and the one that the customer actually receives can be seen by a company with the help of customer journey mapping, (MaritzCX) also taking into account the crucial role played by technology in the CX efforts (i.e. feedback from many different sources and touch points, analyze it, and distribute it in order to make the desired changes); (MaritzCX) it is very important to understand the role of the way we behave, because as underlined by the first American manager to be hired by Toyota, John Shook, transformation starts from our behavior, being ready to learn, adapt, and apply new changes, managing change, culture and circumstance being always unique and changing. (O’Reilly, B., Sarvas, 2017) A report released in December last year by Interactions (which was founded in 2004 and provides Intelligent Virtual Assistants that seamlessly combine AI and human understanding to enable businesses and consumers to engage in productive conversations) – entitled “The current state of customer care. How consumer preferences for channels and technology are evolving” – confirmed that in order to remain competitive businesses need to excel at customer care (the purchasing decisions being made by the majority of customers based on a company’s customer service reputation). The results obtained on the basis of the survey designed by Interactions showed among other aspects (such as whether the respondents are interacting with a live agent or an automated service the human touch is a critical factor for them, their goal being of course to get their issue resolved as quickly as possible) that the customer service channel used by respondents during their most recent interaction was: Phone (57%); Email (17%); Web chat (11%); In person (9%); Social media (2%); Text messaging (1%); Instant messaging (1%); Other (1%). On the other hand, convenience (28%), the preferred contact methods (26%), the best method for the complexity of the issue (17%), the only contact method available at the needed time to reach out (12%), the method worked well when the company was contacted in the past (12%), the only contact information found (6%), were the reasons for why they chose a particular channel. (Interactions, 2017) It is worth mentioning within this framework that a Senior Field Marketing Manager at Interactions (Fox, 2017) underlined in December 2017 that AI is emerging as a worthy alternative to live agents for handling payments: 45 % of consumers having already used a virtual assistant, 73 % of those people indicating that they would be comfortable making payments through a virtual assistant; 54% of consumers prefer to be contacted about an upcoming payment by a virtual assistant over a live agent. Holistic Marketing Management

Implementing an adequate MarTech strategy, considering the blurring of boundaries between Marketing, Technology and Management In September 2016 (HMM, Volume 6, Issue 3) we show that marketers need a holistic approach to customers as values-driven people, bringing different marketing channels together in a new way for new experiences, linking the customer experience (CX) to value, improving CX by moving from touchpoints to journeys, considering the impact of the new and emerging technologies, rethinking the tools and platforms, focusing on the customer technology stack, and developing a marketing capabilities platform. (Purcarea, 2016) Within this context we insisted, among other aspects, on some significant contributions, such as brought by: ▪ the Editor of chiefmartec.com, and the co-founder and CTO of ion interactive, Scott Brinker, who posted the 2016 Marketing Technology Landscape Supergraphic; Brinker recommended in 2014 to keep making forward progress because strategy, marketing, and technology are all intertwined, marketing technology being about experiences (not just about efficiency), the relationship between strategy and technology being circular (not linear), and being marketers’ responsibility to understand technology; ▪ Travis Wright, Chief Marketing Technologist at CCP Global (2-Time MarTech Conference Speaker), who offered multiple topologies (including: Suite, Platform, Multi-Platform, and Bus) taken from Brinker’s post from May 2015 on 4 topologies of integrated marketing technology stacks; ▪ Scott Stone, Advertising & E-Business Manager, Cisco Eagle, who made an interesting review of some key visualizations and diagrams – from the 2016 MarTech USA conference in San Francisco (underlining that such examples from the MarTech conference provide useful measurement in the future) – including one from the presentation of Isaac Wyatt of New Relic, who illustrated the workflow organizations should consider in developing a Marketing Capabilities Platform, as shown below:

Figure 3: Marketing Capabilities Platform Source: Isaac Wyatt, 2016 MarTech USA conference in San Francisco, in “15 Key Visualizations & Diagrams From #MarTech 2016”, by Edmond, D., 15 Key Visualizations & Diagrams From #MarTech 2016, March 31,2016, retrieved from: http://www.komarketingassociates.com/blog/key-visualizations-from-martech/ Holistic Marketing Management

▪ the Chief Marketing Officer and Executive Board Member of Millward Brown Vermeer (MB Vermeer), Marc de Swaan Arons, also recognized for spearheading the Marketing 2020 study where building marketing capability was identified as the most important of all strategic levers to drive competitive advantage; in an article published by Forbes in May 2015 Marc de Swaan Arons highlighted the benefits beyond revenue growth of a dedicated capability-building program, and ten tips for great marketing capability strategy development flowing from studying over-performers, pointing out the need of differentiating capabilities and prioritize (foundational versus transformational versus specialized), as shown in the tabel below: Table 1: Differentiate capabilities and prioritize

Source: Marc de Swaan Arons, Building Marketing Capabilities to Fuel Growth, Forbes, May 20, 2015

▪ the Forrester Research analyst Lori Wizdo, and Marketo’s Lou Pelosi, Sr. Director of LaunchPoint (on the occasion of a Webinar organized by Marketo in January 2016, Marketo underlining the need of investing in solutions so as to gain that 360-degree view of the customer journey - by automating, tracking, and measuring how people are moving across the entire customer lifecycle - starting from the reality of actionable data and insights that can enable greater personalization, engagement, and success), who showed that a comprehensive marketing tech stack can optimize engagement, and revenue can be driven by combining customer data with marketing automation. Six month later, in March 2017 (HMM, Volume 7, Issue 1), (Purcarea, 2017) while approaching the real need of focusing marketing activity on creating customer value, we underlined that is important one hand to know company’s value drivers, the way customer value is calculated (customer lifetime value, for instance), the current customer value, the desired customer value, the way marketing’s contribution will be tied to this customer value (the most critical step), and on another hand to choose a means to measure marketing’s performance within the context of the company’s business value, in this process the following performance metrics table being very useful:

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Tabel 2: Performance metrics

Marketing objective measure X existing customers will adopt new solution Y

Business outcome measure Adoption rate

Measure of performance Customer win rate

Business value result % increase in market share

Source: Patterson, L., Marketing Activity Metrics Mean Little: Here's How to Really Prove Marketing's Value, MarketingProfs, March 2, 2017

And in June 2017 (HMM, Volume 7, Issue 2), (Purcarea, 2017) we showed that for today’s CMO: is critical (according to the “2017 Trends & Tech Guide for B2B Sales + Marketing” – co-authored by Prezi, Ambition and LeadGenius) to keep the pace with the quickly evolution of the technology landscape (using key tools such as analytics and reporting, and savvily handling data), so as to optimize marketing-sales alignment, report on pipeline performance, supply sales with educational content and assets, and manage full-funnel marketing teams; it is important (according to the eBook authored by 5W Decisions and entitled << Is a Chief Marketing Scientist a “Must Have” to Compete? >>) to working closely with the Chief Marketing Scientist (CMS, reporting generally directly to the CMO and playing as a creative thinker in a company, if there is a budget to support this position, as a full-time CMS or outsourcing it) by mixing data science, technology and marketing know-how with experience, so as to manage the Database Marketing Group, by creating a roadmap (in order to incrementally advance company’s database marketing) based on an assessment of company’s direct marketing capabilities, including a review of how well it optimize the concept (coined by 5W Decisions) so-called “5 W’s” (Who to engage, with What message, Where, When and Why), and company’s infrastructure in terms of people, tools, data systems and processes. While in September 2017 (HMM, Volume 7, Issue 3), we showed that: (Purcarea, 2017) as marketing has become a fiercely data-driven game (the democratization of data transforming the marketer’s role in data analyst and ops expert), and shifted to a revenue center (as argued by Izsak, R., on July 13, 2017, spongesoftware.com), revenue-focused marketers are aligning with sales every quarter, creating plans that make sense, and knowing which metrics matter (such as: lead to opp conversion, campaign opportunity influence and ROI, email performance, funnel velocity, and …happiness); the 2016-2017 Gartner CMO Spend Survey (according to Gartner’s Contributor Chris Pemberton on January 10, 2017) revealed that CMOs now oversee or heavily influence CX, technology spending and profit and loss (P&L) performance as means to deliver growth; the CMOs of the future will need (as argued by Blake Morgan, a CX futurist, on May 22, 2017, within AMA’s eNewsletters framework) eight skills (steers company strategy; presents a future vision to the board; embraces data and design; leads innovation and transformation; master of personalization; understands how to leverage AI, machine learning; curates content alongside customers; thinks like a CTO); the latest CMO Survey, Highlights and Insights, Report August 2017, revealed among other aspects, what makes a CMO most effective (the most critical to CMO role being first of all the voice of the customer at the leadership table). And more recently, in December 2017 (HMM, Volume 7, Issue 4), (Purcarea, 2017) we showed that providing prospects and customers with the right content at the right time and through the right channels is a Holistic Marketing Management

continuing challenge for all companies, the necessary strategies and processes while going on this way being enabled by the adequate technology, taking into account that the relevant engagements (as argued by Thomas Wieberneit, aheadCRM Ltd/movento GmbH) are made possible by a mix of business application platform, integration, and AI, as shown in the diagram below:

Figure 4: Business application platform, Integration, and AI Source: Wieberneit, T., How AI Can Mend the Marketing-Sales Gap, Sep 21, 2017, CustomerThink

Having this mix of pictures in mind it is useful to also add now for the big picture other significant contributions, such as those brought by: ▪ the same reputed Chief Marketing Technologist Scott Brinker, who released in May 2017 the latest MarTech Landscape Supergraphic, (Brinker, 2017) attracting our attention on “The Platformization of Marketing Technology” (giving some examples of leading centralized platforms, of alternate approaches to platformizing martech, and of platforms sitting between the mentioned two extremes), as shown in the figure below:

Figure 5: A spectrum of “platforms” for marketing Source: Brinker, S., Marketing Technology Landscape Supergraphic (2017): Martech 5000, May 10, 2017

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Brinker showed that as marketing is about differentiation, many marketers (instead of choosing suite or best-of-breed) are taking a suite and best-of-breed approach, gave two great examples (from Microsoft and Cisco) of such heterogeneous marketing stacks, and hypothesizing that the MarTech landscape (despite remaining quite large for some time) will increasingly have more structure in how it’s organized (both in the market and in marketers’ operations); it is also worth remembering that before the MarTech conference from May 911, 2017 in San Francisco, it was promoted (by Third Door Media, the producers of the MarTech conference and the publishers of MarTech Today) Brinker’s ebook “5 Disruptions Reshaping Marketing as We Know It”, in which it was approached, among other aspects, the democratization of Marketing (the absorption of marketing elements by other parts of the organization, the only question being how this will be governed); ▪ (four month later) Scott Brinker at the beginning of October 2017 at the MarTech Boston 2017, when he delivered the MarTech Manifesto (Brinker, 2017) to a live audience, going beyond the narrow view of MarTech – marketing technology – as the intersection of three disciplines: Marketing, Technology and Management, to the Grand View of MarTech where these once separate disciplines are increasingly inseparable (the three circles of the Venn diagram overlapping almost completely), as shown in the figure below:

Figure 6: From the Narrow View to the Grand View of MarTech, Scott Brinker Source: Adapted from Scott Brinker, MarTech Manifesto, 2017

As argued by Scott Brinker, this Grand View of MarTech brings the customer into focus, considering the blurring of boundaries attributed to the digital transformation (tuning the people-process-technology triangle being the art of management, where imagination is its greatest resource, managers embracing distributed leadership, strategy becoming a shared vision that adapts to emergent opportunities through continuous experimentation, and brand ideal being made real and relevant every day) within intensifying global competition, accelerating technological change, and rising customer expectations; ▪ Web presence management and SEO company Conductor, which surveyed, in November 2017, 500 marketing executives worldwide (50% of respondents were from the US), revealing (as shown by eMarketer) the primary trend for which marketing executives Holistic Marketing Management

worldwide feel most unprepared in 2018: Artificial intelligence (AI), 34 % of respondents, the rates of the other technologies mentioned being as follows: Virtual/augmented reality – 29%; Voice search – 23%; New social networks – 115; Other – 3%; (Kats, 2018) ▪ Doug Bewsher, CEO at Leadspace (the first B2B audience management platform; Bewsher has previously held positions as CMO at Salesforce and Skype), in December 2017 in MarketingProfs, by highlighting “The Three Crucial Steps to Building a Modern Marketing Stack” (align sales and marketing along a single source of truth for data, and a common road map and definition of their strategic priorities; buying technologies strategically against clear, quantifiable business needs; buying MarTech that automates or speeds up the repetitive, tedious elements of their work so they can focus more on doing things technology can’t do - such as building and executing creative campaigns and content), where he argued that a today’s basic requirement for marketers of every persuasion is to be technologically savvy, implementing a MarTech strategy accordingly. (Bewsher, 2017) It would be also interesting to see how the above information relates (being confirmed) to other recent research findings brought to our attention by eMarketer, as shown below:

On the one hand, we can see above a somewhat similarity, in terms of the technologies, business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) advertisers use to measure their digital ad effectiveness efforts, from CRM reports or dashboards and data management platforms (DMPs) to marketing automation, as revealed by the study from Salesforce. (Kats, 2018) On the other hand, with regard to the spending of retailers in North America on a range of emerging technologies (including proximity/location-based marketing, AI/machine learning, predictive/prescriptive analytics etc.) we can see how they are planning to increase it in 2018 compared to 2017, the study from IHL Group and RIS News revealing that in order to provide a better CX or to understand shopper behavior retailers are continuing to incorporate various technologies (for example, such as experimenting with AI, using location data etc.). (Kats, 2018) Holistic Marketing Management

Customer-First Marketing and Customer-Centric Marketing. The beginning of a new era: Customer Success 2.0 We all know that reality as a fluid concept is changing itself from person to person, being defined by a personal belief structure. On the other hand, the “Godfathers of modern decision science” (Nobel-prize Winner Professor Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky) developed the concept of “Prospect theory” (considered foundational to the study of Behavioral Economics) that involves three big ideas: reference points (our decisions about things being highly influenced by where we started); diminishing sensitivity; loss aversion. (Shaw, 2018) In the same time, we all know that only by approaching the expectations and perceptions that a customer/user has about a company’s offered services his satisfaction can be measured. (Parasuraman, Berry, Zheitmal, 1991) As shown at MarketingSherpa Summit 2017 (where participants had the opportunity of understanding how marketers at the world’s leading organizations are executing their campaigns in the digital era), improving company’s customer-first marketing (defined by MarketingSherpa as “an approach to marketing that strives for the highest degree of customer satisfaction through deep understanding of customers’ needs and wants and creating a value proposition with valuable products and services that exceed their expectations”) is a real challenge (as value chain matters to the marketer, value satisfied customers being far more likely to engage with every marketing channel, it is important to optimize every customer touch and to be understood, by being precise with company’s language used, proving the ability to more clearly articulate the proposed value), taking into account, among different aspects that: ▪ as reality is approximated in a perception process, and value is often appraised differently (being derived from a limited view of reality), the prospect’s perception process must be guided accordingly, involving fostering conclusions of value and creating a brand expectation (going beyond relying on a brand promise); (McGlaughlin, 2017) it is worth mentioning here that MECLABS (MarketingSherpa being a subsidiary of MECLABS Institute) is a science lab with a consultancy (its research analysts being led by Flint McGlaughlin, Managing Director), its methodology to customer behavior research having three defining characteristics: scientific inquiry (experimental science; it is tested the full spectrum of online marketing communications, from Web pages to email messages, banner and text ads); real-world experimentation (empirical research focused on real-world Internet marketing challenges and opportunities, the findings from these real-world experiments being added to the MECLABS research directory); datadriven principles (going beyond marketer’s intuition by using empirical, relevant data to craft and teach Internet marketing principles, and discovering the most effective way to get prospects to take the desired action); ▪ there are three questions of a strong CX (who is the person within a company; who participates in the decision making as buyers, users or influencers; where do they get trusted information and what language do they use), and it is important to align offers to the customer journey, every Holistic Marketing Management

interaction being relevant and driving the next action, not forgetting also that every engagement must have a purpose and everything must be put into a ROI context; (Sheinkin, 2017) ▪ crafting a complex content strategy involves: to serve the individual customer, to find underutilized sources of valuable knowledge, to give content time to take hold, to execute by finding pockets of efficiency in existing streams. (Shimp, G., Heidecker, 2017) On January 25, 2018, on the occasion of a Thought Leadership Webinar organized by the Cloud-based CX intelligence leader InMoment, Inc., Salt Lake City (event based on the company’s annual study of CX trends, which surveys both brands and consumers, having this methodology: US: 2,000 consumers / 1,000 brands; Same questions to find alignment / disconnects; Topics explored: Memorability, Personalization, New tech and new ways), Brennan Wilkie, Senior Vice President, Customer Experience Strategy, InMoment, drown the following conclusions: memorable matters; humans are key; millennials are not monolithic; tech to compliment, not confuse; CX stakes continue to rise. (Wilkie, 2018) A day later, the Head of Customer Experience (CX) at Qualtrics, Luke Williams, (Williams, 2018) showed (on CustomerThink, the world’s largest online community dedicated to customer-centric business strategy) seven ways technology will change CX in 2018: improved churn prediction helps companies hang on to customers; customers expect instant service and delivery as a standard; consumer-to-manufacturer feedback takes a step forward; a new era for the Internet of Things (IoT); improved anomaly detection leads to better marketing; DIY service for routine problems becomes the new standard; better personalization through enhanced data. In the opinion of Williams, in order to implement these new practices it is necessary to spend time and resources building equally new systems, acting on uncovering innovative ways to reach customers. Within this framework it is also worth remembering that Qualtrics attracted the attention in 2010 on the approach of Justin Schuster (Vice President of enterprise products for MarketTools) regarding mastering “customer intelligence”: combine science and art; monitor your customer experience in real-time; close the loop; take your customers’ advice; make customer satisfaction an integral part of your organization. (Schuster, 2010) More recently, in October 2016, Jennifer Schulze (Vice President of Marketing for SAP) underlined the need of using customer intelligence tools to provide a holistic view of every customer, considering the transformation of data (understanding being driven by data, being considered pivotal to capture customer data from multiple touchpoints throughout the buying cycle and beyond) into predictive behavior insights with the help of these high-functioning tools, and creating a better CX by unifying customer engagement history quickly accessible by every department and addressing faster and with more personalized attention to the identified issues. (Schulze, 2016) While in January 2018 Jenn Vande Zande (Managing Editor of The Future of Customer Engagement & Commerce) showed that companies can collect and analyze data in real-time (personalizing CX based on what they know about a customer), with the help of AI in ecommerce (Chatbots, CRM, IoT, Sales, Product content management, Customer service, Automation). Holistic Marketing Management

On December 6, 2017, in New York, the reputed Association of National Advertisers (ANA, U.S.) showed that Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been chosen as the 2017 Marketing Word of the Year by the ANA’s 403 selected members (from a list of finalists determined by ANA staff; the ANA’s membership includes more than 1,000 companies with 15,000 brands that collectively spend or support more than $400 billion in marketing and advertising annually) who voted online during the week of November 27. There were given examples of AI (such as: cognitive computing - e.g., IBM’s Watson; driverless cars, voice-enabled digital assistants - e.g., Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri, Google Now; recommendation engines – e.g. Amazon, which uses algorithms based on data including a user’s purchase history, items in the shopping cart, items rated and liked, and what other customers have viewed and purchased), also underlining the use of AI in marketing automation, programmatic ad buying, chat bots and customer service. On the other hand there were remember the last year’s choices: “transparency” (in 2016), “content marketing” (in 2015), “programmatic” (in 2014, the first year the ANA conducted this survey). It is also worth mentioning that “influencer” was also one of the top choices in the 2017 (together with “transparency”, “content marketing”, and “programmatic”). In January 2018, the reputed American Marketing Association invited marketers again to express their opinion that counts regarding the Marketers’ Confidence Index (a biannual survey that measures how optimistic U.S. marketers are about spending and growth in their organizations). A year ago, on February 23, 2017, AMA announced the results of the 2017 Marketers’ Confidence Index survey (an online survey conducted by Kantar Vermeer in December 2016, among a sample of 304 marketers across the U.S.), showing that there is room for improvement”, and highlighting from the very beginning that: “CMOs see opportunities to better quantify ROI, drive customer-centric culture, understand rapid tech changes and invest in insight analytic”. In the same month of January 2018, Lynn Hunsaker (CCXP; author of 3 CX handbooks; a board member of CXPA and ClearAction) pledged for the adoption of a mature approach of customer-centric marketing (concept described by Peter Drucker), considering: (Hunsaker, 2018) ▪ the signal sent in October 2015 by a Forbes contributor (following a study sponsored by Marketo), Christine Crandell, who showed that: marketing is at a crossroad between the customer (on one side) – the marketer being in the middle – and the brand (on the other side); the rise of customer co-created marketing is given to the fact that the buyer is in full control of vendor relationships (not just of the purchase cycle); (Crandell, 2018) ▪ three necessary steps: co-create marketing with customers (because customers and the influencers are increasingly controlling and communicating the brand message); bridge silos of all kinds (this being central to customer-centric marketing; considering that according to CMO Council, August 2017, the brand performance is impacted by the marketer agility and responsiveness); dedicate budget and ownership wisely to CX excellence (considering that according to the 2017 CMO Digital Benchmark Study, December 21, 2017, half of B2C Holistic Marketing Management

companies and a third of B2B companies have a dedicated CX budget etc.). (Leap Frog Marketing Institute, 2017) Just a month before, Lynn Hunsaker identified solutions for 10 types of CX silos (organizational, channels, systems, data, processes, vision, assumptions, goals, metrics, handoffs), underlining four keys – broaden perspectives; expand motivations; nurture collaboration; build-in universality – to solve these CX silos. In other words, that is customercentered business management, which is not yet a common practice. (Hunsaker, 2017) At the beginning of February 2018, Terri Maxwell (CEO and President of social impactfocused business cultivator Share On Purpose, a portfolio of brands) (Maxwell, 2018) argued (on the basis of the findings revealed by a study presented at a recent American Marketing Association conference), (Conick, 2017) that Marketing CEOs are typically more successful by inherently putting the customer first, and knowing how to position their products in the marketplace. She also underlined the opportunity of learning – even for those not coming from a marketing background – from successful Marketing CEOs such as Domino’s Pizza (No. 1 in pizza delivery today) CEO J. Patrick Doyle. While at the end of January 2018, we find out thanks to AMA’s Marketing News the opinion of Deloitte’s first CMO (in March 2015 after working for Deloitte in various roles since 1985), Diana O’Brien, who five years ago took the responsibility to build Deloitte University. According to O’Brien, her role is of a champion for clients and a driver of growth (marketing not being seen as a cost center), being familiar with sitting in the C-suite, and having as responsibility to build Deloitte’s reputation by creating powerful experiences and unique insights, and also by building lasting relationships with Deloitte’s clients, being both a chief storyteller (helped by their own digital agency to craft a creative platform to emotionally connect to how they behave in the marketplace in favor of their clients) and the advocate for Deloitte’s customers, being more proactive in satisfying and exceeding Deloitte’s customers’ expectations (by using data scientists, research and analytics to look at the data accordingly, and focusing on CX). Impeding growth, the costly customer churn (customer attrition) was, is and will be a real challenge for all the companies (there are many ways to calculate customer churn rate), being a well-known fact that it is much less expensive to retain existing customers than it is to acquire new customers. (NGData, 2018) Only a holistic view of company’s customers and their interactions across multiple channels can help to identify early signs of potential churn. (Burgelman, 2018) In order to improve customer retention (which is referring to the activities and actions took by companies to reduce the number of customer defections) many companies are using customer retention software systems, targeted customer retention plans, and customer experience management solutions that enhance customer retention rates. (Galetto, 2018) The term “customer success” was coined by Salesforce, which became the leader in CRM software thanks to this focus on customer success. The major strategic shift made by Salesforce in 2014 is well-known, going from a sales-driven CRM company to one focused on long-term Holistic Marketing Management

customer success. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) customer success expert Lincoln Murphy explained the meaning of customer success as simply ensuring that company’s customers achieve their desired outcome through their interactions with the company. In SaaS case the term “customer success” became a weapon of choice to increase conversions, improve customer happiness, and decrease churn for recurring revenue businesses. And this because such a customer success approach is known as being especially important for software vendors (which have transitioned from one-time sales of on premise software to month-to-month subscriptions for SaaS). (Murphy, 2014) On the other hand, customer success – according to Customer Success Association – is about customer relationship, retention, and optimization, the most effective way to keep company’s customers being to make them as successful as possible in using company’s technology product (sustainable corporate profitability and growth being the ultimate strategic goal of the customer success role). While “Customer Success Management” (CSM) is an integration of technology, marketing, sales, professional services, training and support into a relationship product for the SaaS/Cloud era. The elements of CSM (CSM initiatives starting out as reactive tactical teams so-called “churn fighters”) are shown below:

Figure 9: The elements of Customer Success Management Source: Definition: Customer Success Management, Customer Success Association (work cited)

In January 2018 McKinsey’s representatives Charles Atkins, Shobhit Gupta, and Paul Roche launched the question if software vendors and other companies can identify more opportunities to grow and deliver value by taking a fresh look at customer success, which is: becoming a growth engine that extends beyond software-as-a-service (SaaS) businesses; increasingly viewed as a cross-functional imperative for all functions of a company, as shown in the McKinsey’s exhibits below: (Atkins, Gupta and Roche, 2018)

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Figure 10: Introducing customer success 2.0 (I), McKinsey & Company Source: Atkins, C., Gupta, S. and Roche, P., Introducing customer success 2.0: The new growth engine, McKinsey & Company, High Tech January 2018 (work cited)

Figure 11: Introducing customer success 2.0 (II), McKinsey & Company Source: Atkins, C., Gupta, S. and Roche, P., Introducing customer success 2.0: The new growth engine, McKinsey & Company, High Tech January 2018 (work cited)

McKinseyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s representatives showed that companies can: generate real impact by having all functions put the customer first (product experience being one of the top two drivers of Holistic Marketing Management

customer success); derive more value in return by identifying opportunities to deliver more value to customers; be finally helped to achieve their goals on both counts by a new approach to customer success (viewed as a guiding philosophy); be rewarded (for generating more customer value) by their clients with greater sales, more referrals, and increased loyalty (what represents the real value of customer success 2.0). Instead of conclusions: Marketing discipline in full swing We are witnessing a pledge for customer-centered business management which solves CX silos, and that more and more B2C and B2B companies are dedicating CX budgets (bridging silos of all kinds being considered central to customer-centric marketing). Putting the customer first, and knowing how to position their products in the marketplace, marketing CEOs are seen as being typically more successful. CMOs are seen as champions for customers and drivers of growth (impeding growth, the costly customer churn was, is and will be a real challenge for all the companies), creating powerful experiences and unique insights, focusing on CX, advocating for customers and exceeding customers’ expectations by using data scientists, research and analytics to look at the data accordingly. Improving company’s customer-first marketing, as defined by MarketingSherpa, is a real challenge, considering data-driven principles and not only, acting on uncovering innovative ways to reach customers. What presupposes also to use customer intelligence tools to provide a holistic view of every customer, creating a better CX, including with the help of AI, which has been chosen as the 2017 Marketing Word of the Year by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA, U.S.), and this within the context in which the American Marketing Association (AMA) underlined already from the beginning of the last year significant opportunities, such as driving customer-centric culture, understanding rapid tech changes and investing in insight analytics. Looking at the above mentioned McKinsey’s four exhibits we can see the step made from company’s focusing on churn reduction and risk management (customer success 1.0) to recognizing customer success as a growth engine (customer success 2.0), opening a window of opportunity for an increased company’s focus on CX. And perhaps the differences considered between B2B and B2C marketing are not so consistent with the currently perceived reality, if we take into account that: a company is run by people, both right and wrong decisions being based on emotion, and logic and emotion working in parallel; different points of the customer journey can be impacted by different emotions evoked by brands; (Weiss, 2018) the line between B2C and B2B selling (which always revolves around the customer) is blurred by the evolution of the technology and customer behavior in the new economy that is always demanding a customercentric experience, many forward-looking companies already having a Chief Customer Success Officer. (Altschuler, 2017) Three years ago, a debate around the idea (article posted on CustomerThink.com) launched by the reputed Bob Thompson (CEO of CustomerThink Corp., Founder/Editor-in-Chief of CustomerThink.com) with regard to CSM as training wheels for CXM brought to light true lessons to learn we are trying to synthesize and harmonize: it is a hard work to be customercentric enough, but not too much, and focusing on customer success is a great way to find out what customers really want and to organize accordingly to deliver it profitably on the basis of a Holistic Marketing Management

company’s informal social network and cross-functional work group learning by doing benefits of customer success (by identifying company’s most valuable customers, customers’ jobs-to-bedone, associated decision journeys, customers’ desired outcomes, critical customer decisions, targeted improvements); only by understanding the relationship, emotion, channels and value delivery elements a company can achieve great customer success by creating success managers who understand how customer perceives success, taking into account that what it counts is the end to end customer journey; it is also important to better understand the coevolution of technology and capabilities (which occurs in four stages: technology implementation, capability co-evolution, organisational adoption, business transformation); customer success is a B2B term for customer retention, and it already seems to be going the CRM route. (Thompson, 2015) This debate continued (on CustomerThink.com) and was relaunched in February 2018, when Sue Duris (Director of Marketing and Customer Experience of M4 Communications) raised the question if 2018 is the year CX and customer success converge, underlining, among other aspects, what she understood, after participating at SaaStr Annual 2018 Conference, San Francisco, Feb 6-8, 2018, with regard to the convergence of CX and customer success: true loyalty and advocacy are driven by being successful outside the product, combining the what (the product) and the why (the purpose in which it is used), the move of many customer success software solutions to a more customer-centric model being another indicator of this convergence; embedding more emotion analytics and metrics into customer success framework in order to drive convergence (which is already happening) will both enrich the customer feedback it receives, and help customer success (CS) understand how underlying emotions drive customer outcomes so as to generate deeper customer outcomes; CX will focus more on the specifics of onboarding (to combat churn), retention, and expansion in the customer journey (end-to-end customer journey maps) to help align customer metrics to business outcomes in order to drive deeper customer outcomes. Within this framework, very interesting comments were made again offering other true lessons to learn, such as: CS (largely a tactical extension of the selling process) and CX (more strategic, emotional and holistic) are related but different; CX (improving loyalty/retention is a key part of) has become an all-singing-all-dancing strategy, philosophy, movement, while CSM (to improve loyalty/retention it must remain focused on helping customers achieve their outcomes) is a subset; success is defined by the customer (not by the vendor), and focusing on CS presents an impossibly high bar, the same being the case for CX, a challenge becoming bridging the gap between a vendor’s promise and the customer’s assessment, also considering that customer acquisition and/or customer retention is a strategic decisional matter (which involves opportunities, risks, and tradeoffs), and that the root cause customer churn is attributable to incongruity between the company objectives and sales objectives; the goal of CS is to create customer value, the customer needs a good experience (not unnecessary experiences), from his point of view success being creating more value than vendor’s competition; CS (which is about delivery, is about the experience of making your

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customers successful practically) and CX are intrinsically connected and impacting each other but none will take over the other, and if ever happen, will be CS taking over CX. (Duris, 2018) We can add that the development of the Marketing discipline is in full swing, outlining an evolution in the Marketing’s logical sequence: learning and knowledge, feedback, action, CX, CS, innovation, ROMI. References Altschuler, M. (2017). B2B Sales vs B2C Sales – A Complete Breakdown All Sales Professionals Can Learn From. Sales Hacker, September 20th, 2017. Retrieved from https://www.saleshacker.com/b2b-vs-b2c-sales-differences-similarities/ Atkins, C. et all. (2018). Introducing customer success 2.0: The new growth engine. McKinsey & Company, High Tech January 2018. Retrieved from https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/high-tech/our-insights/introducing-customer-success-2-0-the-new-growth-engine? Bewsher, D. (2017). The Three Crucial Steps to Building a Modern Marketing Stack. MarketingProfs, December 18, 2017. Retrieved from https://www.marketingprofs.com/articles/2017/33304/the-three-crucial-steps-to-building-a-modern-marketing-stack? Bollard, A. et all. (2017). Accelerating the shift to a next-generation operating model. McKinsey, December 2017. Retrieved from https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/digital-mckinsey/our-insights/accelerating-the-shift-to-a-next-generation-operating-model? Brinker, S. (2017). Marketing Technology Landscape Supergraphic (2017): Martech 5000. MartechConf, May 10, 2017. Retrieved from https://martechconf.com/marketing-technology-landscape-supergraphic-2017-martech-5000/ Brinker, S. (2017). Free ebook: 5 Disruptions Reshaping Marketing as We Know It. ChiefMartec, March. Retrieved from http://chiefmartec.com/2017/03/free-ebook-5-disruptions-reshaping-marketing-know/ Burgelman, L. (2018). The science behind customer churn. NGData, January 12. Retrieved from https://www.ngdata.com/science-behindcustomer-churn/ Chu, E. et all. (2017). Dunn, J., Roy, D., Sands, G. and Stevens, R., AI in storytelling: Machines as co-creators. McKinsey, December. Retrieved from https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/media-and-entertainment/our-insights/ai-in-storytelling? Conick, H. (2017). Study Finds One Quarter of CEOs Have a Marketing or Sales Background. AMA, Marketing News, Feb. 18. Retrieved from https://www.ama.org/publications/eNewsletters/Marketing-News-Weekly/Pages/quarter-ceos-have-marketing-sales-background.aspx Crandell, C. (2015). Going Beyond Customer-Centric Marketing. Forbes, Oct 9. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/forbes/welcome/?toURL=https://www.forbes.com/sites/christinecrandell/2015/10/09/going-beyond-customer-centricmarketing&refURL=&referrer= Duris, S. (2018). Is 2018 the Year Customer Experience and Customer Success Converge? CustomerThink, February 13. Retrieved from http://customerthink.com/is-2018-the-year-customer-experience-and-customer-success-converge/ Fox, D. (2017). [Infographic]: Are Your Customers Ready to Embrace AI to Make Payments? Interactions, December 18. Retrieved from https://www.interactions.com/embrace-ai-make-payments/ Galetto, M. (2018). What is customer retention? NGdata, January 12. Retrieved from https://www.ngdata.com/what-is-customer-retention/ Golding, I. (2018). Escaping the deserted island of strategy. A Customer Experience perspective from Manuela Pifani. Customer Experience Update, February 12th. Retrieved from http://www.customerexperienceupdate.com/edition/daily-online-experience-user-experience-2018-02-09? Golding, I. (2018). The importance of customer culture – an interview with Chris Brown. Customer Experience Update, February 5th. Retrieved from http://www.customerexperienceupdate.com/edition/weekly-marketing-roadmap-2018-01-27? Golding, I. (2018). Understanding the Employer Journey – The Employee Engagement Loop. Customer Experience Update, January 29 th. Retrieved from http://www.customerexperienceupdate.com/edition/weekly-marketing-roadmap-2018-01-27? Hunsaker, L. (2018). Customer-Centric Marketing: Step-Up Performance. CustomerThink, January 19. Retrieved from http://customerthink.com/customer-centric-marketing-step-up-performance/? Hunsaker, L. (2017). How to Solve Customer Experience Silos. Customer Experience Update, December 30. Retrieved from http://www.customerexperienceupdate.com/edition/weekly-user-experience-marketing-2017-12-30?

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Kats, R. (2018). Marketers Turn to a Range of Technologies to Gauge Effectiveness. Many marketing stacks are stacked. eMarketer, Jan 24. Retrieved from https://www.emarketer.com/content/marketers-rely-on-a-wide-range-of-analytics-tools? Kats, R. (2018). Some Marketers Feel Unprepared for AI. eMarkerer, Jan 10. Retrieved from https://www.emarketer.com/content/manymarketers-aren-t-prepared-for-ai? Kats, R. (2018). Retailers Place Technology Bets for 2018. Many plan to spend more on location-based marketing and AI. eMarketer, January 9. Retrieved from https://retail.emarketer.com/article/retailers-place-technology-bets-2018/5a5544e8ebd40008bc7911f3? Maechler, N. et all. (2016). From touchpoints to journeys: Seeing the world as customers do. McKinsey & Company, March. Retrieved from https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/marketing-and-sales/our-insights/from-touchpoints-to-journeys-seeing-the-world-as-customers-do Mandel, M. (2015) “First Call Resolution” is an antiquated standard. Let's move on. Linkedin, January 15. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/fcr-antiquated-standard-lets-move-marc-mandel-ccxp CXP Maxwell, T. (2018). Four Secrets of Marketers Who Become CEOs. MarketingProfs, February 2. Retrieved from https://www.marketingprofs.com/articles/2018/33555/four-secrets-of-marketers-who-become-ceos? McGlaughlin, F. (2017). The prospect’s perception gap: How to bridge the dangerous gap between the results we want and the results we have. MECLABS Institute. Retrieved from The-Prospects-Perception-Gap-Sherpa2017.pdf Murphy, T. (2014). Salesforce Shifts Focus to Customer Success with Analytics Cloud #DF14. CMSWire, Oct 9. Retrieved from https://www.cmswire.com/cms/customer-experience/salesforce-shifts-focus-to-customer-success-with-analytics-cloud-df14-026786.php O’Reilly, B., Sarvas, R. (2017). Business transformation starts with leadership transformation. O’Reilly, March 14. Retrieved from https://www.oreilly.com/ideas/business-transformation-starts-with-leadership-transformation Parasuraman, A. et all. (1991). Refinement and reassessment of the SERVQUAL dimensions. Journal of Retailing, 67 (4):420-50 Purcarea, T. (2017). CMOs at the confluence of AI, CX, and Growth. Holistic Marketing Management, Volume 7, Issue 4, pp. 37-48 Purcarea, T. (2017). Marketing’s renaissance by committing to improve CX. Holistic Marketing Management, Volume 7, Issue 3, pp. 30-47 Purcarea, T. (2017). Marketing’s progress beyond its heritage functions: New Marketing, New CMO, and the Revenue Potential. Holistic Marketing Management, Volume 7, Issue 2, pp. 18-28 Purcarea, T. (2017). CMO priorities in approaching consumer decision journey, and inspiration and influence in marketing, Holistic Marketing Management, Volume 7, Issue 1, pp. 18-31 Purcarea, T. (2016). The practice of marketing under the pressure of continuously updating the marketing capabilities platform. Holistic Marketing Management, vol. 6(3), pp. 27-41 Schulze, J., Customer Intelligence Tools: Why You Need Them, October 20, 2016, retrieved from: http://www.digitalistmag.com/customerexperience/2016/10/20/customer-intelligence-tools-why-you-need-themSchuster, J. (2010). 5 Essential Steps to Mastering Customer Intelligence. Build loyalty, gain a competitive edge, and improve your bottom line. DestinationCRM, Aug 19. Retrieved from http://www.destinationcrm.com/Articles/Web-Exclusives/Viewpoints/5-Essential-Steps-to-MasteringCustomer-Intelligence-69359.aspx Seitz, B. (2018). Rethinking customer journeys with the next-generation operating model. McKinsey Podcast January, Invitees Alex Singla and Elixabete Larrea Tamayo. Retrieved from https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/digital-mckinsey/our-insights/rethinking-customerjourneys-with-the-next-generation-operating-model? Shaw, C. (2018). How We Make Decisions – Prospect Theory. CustomerThink, January 17. Retrieved from http://customerthink.com/how-wemake-decisions-prospect-theory/? Sheinkin, A. (2017). Am inside look at the 7 truth of Marketing IBM teaches its 5,000 global marketers. IBM. Retrieved from Summit2017_DD_IBM.pdf Shimp, G., Heidecker, A. (2017). Fully aligned: A how-to session with Reader’s Choice winner, SAP, on navigating relevancy, and gaining the buy-in you need from stakeholders at every step, SAP, How SAP mapped buyer journey. Retrieved from Summit2017_Readers_Choice_FINAL.pdf Streibich, K.-H. (2017). Breaking the Mould! A New Business Model for the 21st Century. European Business Review, November 24. Retrieved from http://www.europeanbusinessreview.com/breaking-the-mould-a-new-business-model-for-the-21st-century/ Tincher, J., Don’t Forget to Map the Employee Journey, February 7, 2017, retrieved from: http://www.customerexperienceupdate.com/edition/daily-user-experience-consumers-2018-02-07

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Tincher, J. (2018). The ADKAR Change Model and Customer Journey Maps. Customer Experience Update, January 25. Retrieved from http://www.customerexperienceupdate.com/edition/daily-customer-focused-online-experience-2018-01-25? Thompson, B. (2015). Customer Success Management: Training Wheels for CXM? CustomerThink, August 21. Retrieved from http://customerthink.com/customer-success-management-training-wheels-for-cxm/ Tincher, J. (2016). How to Build Customer Loyalty. Intradiem, July 7 th. Retrieved from http://blog.intradiem.com/how-to-build-customer-loyalty/ Viaene, S. (2017). How To Catch A Moving Target in the Digital World. European Business Review, November 9. Retrieved from http://www.europeanbusinessreview.com/how-to-catch-a-moving-target/ Wilkie, B. (2018). 2018 CX Trends: Five Blind Spots in How Brands View Customer Experiences. InMoment, Thought Leadership Webinar, January 25. Retrieved from webinar012518.pdf Weiss, T., How Emotional Marketing in B2B Drives Customers (Even If You Think It Doesn’t), January 31, 2018, retrieved from: https://www.marketingprofs.com/articles/2018/33540/how-emotional-marketing-in-b2b-drives-customers-even-if-you-think-it-doesnt? Williams, L. (2018). 7 Ways Tech Will Change the Customer Experience in 2018. CustomerThink, January 26. Retrieved from http://customerthink.com/7-ways-tech-will-change-the-customer-experience-in-2018/? *** Artificial Intelligence with the human touch. Blend AI with human agents to improve both customer and agent satisfaction. A Forrester consulting thought leadership paper commissioned by Genesys, November 2017. Retrieved from http://www.genesys.com/about/resources/artificial-intelligence-with-the-human-touch *** Customer Journey Mapping. Retrieved from https://www.maritzcx.com/customer-journey-mapping/ *** Customer Experience (CX), Customer Experience Management (CEM/CXM). Retrieved from https://www.maritzcx.com/customerexperience/ *** The current state of customer care. How consumer preferences for channels and technology are evolving, Interactions, 2017. Retrieved from INT_RE_StateofCustomerCare_120817.pdf *** https://martechconf.com/martech-manifesto/ *** https://www.marketingsherpa.com/summit2017 *** MarketingSherpa Customer Satisfaction Research Study. Retrieved from: https://marketingsherpa.com/freestuff/customer-first-study?_ga *** https://www.meclabs.com/about/methodology *** 5 Essential Steps to Mastering Customer Intelligence, Qualtrics, September 8, 2010. Retrieved from https://www.qualtrics.com/blog/5essential-steps-to-mastering-customer-intelligence/ *** “AI” Voted ANA Marketing Word of The Year For 2017, New York December 6, 2017. Retrieved from http://www.ana.net/content/show/ *** Marketers' Confidence Is At an All-Time High in 2017, But They See Room for Improvement, American Marketing Association, Marketing News, Feb. 23, 2017. Retrieved from https://www.ama.org/publications/MarketingNews/Pages/2017-marketers-confidence-all-time-high-butroom-for-improvement.aspx *** Marketer agility and responsiveness impact brand performance, reveals new CMO Council study, August 10, 2017. Retrieved from https://cmocouncil.org/media-center/press-releases/marketer-agility-and-responsiveness-impact-brand-performance-reveals-new-cmo-councilstudy *** 2017 CMO Digital Benchmark Study, December 21, 2017. Retrieved from http://leapfrogmarketinginstitute.leapfrogonline.com/publications/2017-cmo-digital-benchmark-study/ *** What is Customer Churn? Definition and How to Reduce It - NGData, January 12, 2018. Retrieved from https://www.ngdata.com/what-iscustomer-churn/ *** Definition: Customer Success Management. Retrieved from: https://www.customersuccessassociation.com/csa/definition-customer-successmanagement/

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Prof. Dr. h. c. Léon F. WEGNEZ (by courtesy of) - Shopper Marketing: Giving Back Consumer Sales Promotions their Character of Exception, “Distribution d’aujourd’hui”, 58ème année, Août 2017, Brussels

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The Issue 3, Vol. XII, 2017 of our Partner Journal „Marketing Science and Inspirations”, Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia Theodor PURCĂREA

JEL Classification: Y30

We were happy to receive by post the Issue 3, Vol. XII, 2017 of our Partner Journal „Marketing Science and Inspirations”, Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia. This issue of the well-known academic journal addressed to academics and practitioners covered a wide range of topics in the marketing research field: “Creating value for the customer with industrial services: Selling industrial services is not a matter of price” (the authors Margarethe Überwimmer, Robert Füreder, and Christina Roitinger conducted a qualitative study with five Upper Austrian companies and revealed that there are certain value dimensions necessary to be considered for the successful delivery of industrial services, the fact that price is the most important factor from the viewpoint of sales contradicting the common customers’ view on basing choice on the above mentioned value driven aspects; they concluded that as customers are more log-term and relationships oriented, the value benefits should be the main communication message towards the customer, the sales staff needing to be trained accordingly); “The hidden impact of word-of-mouth: A system dynamics approach” (the authors Jörg Kraigher-Krainer, Holistic Marketing Management

Margarethe Überwimmer, Yasel Costa and Andreas Zehetner concluded on the basis of five simulations that WOM can be the decisive factor for both business success or failure when introducing a product into a market, the model highlighting the importance of various influenecs of WOM); “Study: Customers engagement with user-generated-content: How do customers use the possibility to create content?” (the author Marcus Diedrich tried to find out how the usergenerated-content is used and underlined the help given by other customers to someone in need); “The power of compliments: A socio-linguistic view into social advertisment” (the author Dagmar Sieglova focused on providing an unique multi-disciplinary perspective, demonstrating that compliments – being strongly personal and value oriented with a positive charge in their nature – amplify their potent communication power aimed at the recognition of the consumer in the modern times); “Code of conduct in retail” (the authors Eva Jaderna and Martina Beranek focused on the relation between the ethical standards, business ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility). The „Marketing Science and Inspirations” Journal also includes other sections such as: “Marketing Briefs” (Pavel Strach – “Too much is never enough: The 2017 case of roadside billboards in the Czech Republik”); “Captured us” (Lubomira Strazovska – “The civic initiative: Dog is citizen of Nove Zamky too”; Barbora Sucha – “Tatras flourished with art and experiences”); “Reviews” (Peter Starchon – “Lostakova, Hana et all., 2017, “Strengthening customer relationship in the B2B market”, Prague: Grada Publishing, 2017); “Dictionary of Useful Marketing Terms” (Dagmar Weberova).

Allow us to also remember that the Editor-in Chief of the „Marketing Science and Inspirations” Journal is Professor Peter Starchon, Faculty of Management, Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia, who is also a Member of the Editorial Board of the “Holistic Marketing Management” Journal and of the “Romanian Distribution Committee Magazine”. Holistic Marketing Management

And it is always our honor and pleasure to remember our meeting in Koln, Germany, in 2011, on the occasion of the working meeting of the European Retail Academy (ERA).

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Isabelle Wegnez (by courtesy of) - Wonderbox, a Rare and Magical Premium Brand We offer you, by courtesy of the Director of Editorial, the above mentioned article published in the prestigious “Distribution d’aujourd’hui”, 58ème année, Août 2017, Brussels

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