Week 2 (3 Readings)

Question 1

Reading 3: Advancing marketing strategy research

Answer 1

Robert W. Palmatier (2018)

Question 2

Editor’s last editorial

Answer 2

offers an opportunity to recognize the efforts of key people, reflect on the journal’s accomplishments and challenges, and pass on any potential insights gained in the journey

Question 3

(JAMS)

Answer 3

Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science

Question 4

(IF)

Answer 4

Impact factor

Question 5

One of the greatest challenges facing the journal, and perhaps the discipline

Answer 5

the shift exhibited by some marketing departments, away from marketing strategy or managerially focused research in general, which undermines JAMS’s primary research domain

Question 6

The label marketing strategy research

Answer 6

to reflect the focus on managerial actions, adopted to improve performance, but with the recognition that the unit of analysis can be the consumer, employee (e.g., salesperson), or firm

Question 7

What are the top two reasons for rejection at JAMS

Answer 7

Positioning and contributions continue to be the top two causes of rejection

First, papers that have not been positioned to match JAMS’s editorial focus (e.g., behavioral research without meaningful managerial insights or relevance) tend to be rejected

Second, the failure to generate sufficient contributions—such as testing a model with mostly main effect hypotheses, using cross-sectional survey data, such that common method variance provides a strong alternative explanation for the findings—will lead to rejection

Question 8

Reading 2: Research in marketing strategy

Answer 8

Neil A. Morgan, Kimberly A. Whitler, Hui Feng & Simos Chari 2019

Question 9

This papers three specific objectives:

Answer 9

(1) to develop a framework through
which to assess the current state of research conducted within marketing strategy;

(2) to illuminate and illustrate the “state of knowledge” in core sub-domains of marketing strategy development and execution; and
(3) to develop a research agenda identifying aspects of marketing strategy that require greater

Question 10

What this paper discusses

In addressing these objectives, this study makes a number of contributions to strategic marketing knowledge

Answer 10

First, we show that marketing strategy research published in the major journals over the past 19 years (1999–2017) has primarily focused on either marketing tactics or marketing-related inputs (resources and capabilities) to marketing strategy and
their performance outcomes (both directly and under different

Second, we develop a new conceptualization of marketing strategy, identifying four key sub-domains (i.e., formulation–content, formulation–process, implementation–content, implementation–process)

Third, building on such insights we identify a new
research agenda for future marketing strategy research.

Question 11

A necessary first step in reviewing research in any domain is to ______________:

Answer 11

clearly establish its external boundaries and identify important internal boundaries among sub-domains.

Question 12

Varadarajan’s definition of

marketing strategy:

Answer 12

Marketing strategy is an organization’s integrated pattern of decisions that specify its crucial choices
concerning products, markets, marketing activities and
marketing resources in the creation, communication
and/or delivery of products that offer value to customers in exchanges with the organization and thereby enables the organization to achieve specific objectives

Question 13

The authors new definition for marketing strategy

Answer 13

encompassing the “what” strategy decisions and actions and “how” strategy-making and realization processes concerning a firm’s desired goals3 over a future time-period, and the means through which it intends to achieve them by selecting target markets and customers, identifying required value propositions, and designing and enacting integrated marketing programs to develop, deliver, and communicate
the value offerings

Question 14

Our new definition of marketing strategy also allows us to identify and capture studies examining strategic marketing phenomena related to—but not directly encompassing—marketing strategy

Answer 14

The most important categories of these related phenomena deal with:

(1) inputs to marketing strategy including resources such as market knowledge, brand portfolios, financial resources, etc. and capabilities such as NPD, CRM, etc.;
(2) outputs of marketing strategy including customer “mind-set” and behavior outcomes and marketplace and economic performance; and
(3) environmental factors distinct from marketing strategy but that may impact marketing strategy phenomena and their relationships with other phenomena including internal factors such as organizational culture, size, etc. and external factors such as market characteristics, technology turbulence, competitive intensity, etc.

Question 15

Four primary criteria to be included in this study

Answer 15

(1) the focus of the study must be on strategy (vs. individual tactics) as specified in Fig. 1, either as a primary objective or as part of a wider research design;
(2) the study should be of marketing (vs. purely management) phenomena;
(3) the unit of analysis is at firm, SBU, brand or product level (or product or brand portfolios), rather than at individual level (e.g., salesperson or consumer/customer);
(4) the study was published during the 1999–2017 period, after the last widely-cited review of marketing strategy was undertaken by Varadarajan and Jayachandran

Question 16

Coding procedure

Answer 16

We first, created a document specifying the definitions, keywords, and examples for each aspect of marketing strategy.

Second, two experienced marketing strategy researchers independently coded a randomly selected set of 60 articles (10 from each journal) using this draft protocol to assess the accuracy and thoroughness of the evaluative criteria and made revisions and improvement.

Third, we pretested the revised protocol using two additional expert judges, who independently evaluated another 10 randomly selected articles from each journal. Full agreement was attained, ensuring the accuracy and reliability of our coding scheme.

Question 17

As defined in Varadarajan (2010), “_________” refers to the general field of study, while “_________” refers to the organizational strategy construct that is the principal focus of the field

Answer 17

strategic marketing

marketing strategy

Question 18

Almost 95% of the papers published in the six most influential journals publishing strategic marketing research during the 1999–2017 period are “___________” papers (i.e., they do not examine phenomena within the marketing strategy domain delineated in our review framework—even though some of these examine phenomena that are within the general field of strategic marketing)

Answer 18

non-strategy

Question 19

the largest category of papers published in these journals (36%) contains studies of marketing tactics that examine one or two individual marketing program elements such as

Answer 19

1) advertising
2) Channels
3) product and price
4) and selling

Question 20

As shown in Table 4, the vast majority (202) of the 257 marketing strategy papers in our sample are _____________, with some balance between primary (109) and secondary (78) data used, but few (15) using both primary and secondary data

Answer 20

empirical in nature

Question 21

However, an examination of the numbers by year indicates a recent decrease in the use of primary data and increasing use of _________

Answer 21

secondary data

Question 22

Specifically, following a review of the papers in our sample we coded each as:

Answer 22

(1) adopting a single theory lens;
(2) using multiple theories (typically in the development of hypotheses);
(3) developing theory through a grounded approach and/or conceptual development; or
(4) using atheoretical logical argumentation (usually in primarily data-driven studies)

Question 23

Chandy and Tellis (2000) observations

Answer 23

(1) large firms engage in radical innovation (and do so more than smaller firms) and
(2) the “incumbent’s curse” (tendency to shift to more incremental innovations as firms become bigger and more established) varies across countries and over time

Question 24

What was the least investigated of the four major sub-domains of marketing strategy

Answer 24

With less than 6% of the published marketing strategy studies in our sample focusing on how managers develop marketing strategies, this is the least investigated of the four major sub-domains of marketing strategy—and by a big margin

Question 25

MSM

Answer 25

marketing strategy making

Question 26

New insights for marketing strategy research

Answer 26

First, is the relative (and increasing) rarity of research focusing on one or more aspects of the core marketing strategy construct at the heart of the field of strategic marketing.

Second, in terms of theory building and theory use, our analysis suggests that almost half of the papers published in the last 19 years have been logic- or data-driven in developing arguments—and this trend is increasing

Third, in terms of data sources and analysis methods, our study shows that the use of qualitative approaches in published marketing strategy research is rare—and trending down toward zero

Question 27

We identify three key topic areas for additional research that are both under-examined in existing marketing strategy research, and of clear relevance to the challenges facing CMOs:

Answer 27

marketing strategy goals, the role of the CMO/marketing function, and longer- versus shorter-term emphasis in marketing strategy

Question 28

In Table 14C we therefore focus on three areas for additional research in this sub-domain that are under-examined in existing marketing strategy research, and relevant to addressing these practical challenges:

Answer 28

marketing organization, integrated marketing programs, and marketing tactic enactment.

Question 29

Future research

Answer 29

Drawing on sociological and anthropological theories and approaches there is a large and growing field of research in strategic management labelled “strategy as practice” that considers the “doing of it” including the actors involved, the perspectives they hold, and tools that they use

For example, how does what CMOs think that marketing strategy is vary across firms and why? When, why and with what consequences do CMOs use different perspectives and tools in developing marketing strategy (e.g., complex formal plans vs. goals and improvisation vs. simple rules)?

Question 30

Advancing marketing strategy in the marketing discipline and beyond: from promise, to neglect, to prominence, to fragment (to promise?)

Answer 30

Shelby D. Hunt 2017

Question 31

The four ‘Eras’ of marketing thought to advance five major claims:

Answer 31

the area of strategic marketing

(1) had significant promise when the marketing academic discipline was founded in Era I (1900–1920),
(2) was neglected in Era II (1920–1950),
(3) rose to prominence in Era III (1950–1980),
(4) has become a ‘fragment’ in Era IV (1980–present) and
(5) has prospects that are both promising and problematic in the future ‘Era V’. Finally, a tentative prognosis for strategic marketing and the marketing discipline is suggested

Question 32

The promise of marketing strategy in Era I

Answer 32

The literature of the 1900–1920 time period

Era 1, the ‘Founding of the Field’, reveals that the beginnings of academic marketing thought are concurrent with that of marketing strategy

Question 33

Shaw’s (1912) paper was the first academic article to

Answer 33

(1) diagram the, now familiar, box-and-arrow depiction of channels of distribution;
(2) use channel diagrams to trace the ‘evolution of the middleman’ from ‘remote ages’ through the ‘medieval period’ to the ‘modern period’ (p. 726);
(3) use the diagrams to display the ‘modern tendency to reduce the number of successive middlemen’ (p. 729);
(4) propose that the five functions performed by channel members are ‘sharing the risk’, ‘transporting the goods’, ‘financing the operations’, ‘selling the goods’ and ‘assembling, sorting, and re-shipping’ (p. 731); and
(5) discuss the ‘abuses in connection with advertising today’, while pointing out that these abuses ‘should not cloud the fact that … the steady and remarkable increase in advertising evidences its efficiency as a selling force’

Question 34

Prior to Shaw (1912), no journal article that

Answer 34

(1) covered issues across the broad range of topics that we now call ‘marketing’,
(2) appeared in early marketing books and
(3) influenced later marketing research sufficiently to be cited by marketing historians

Question 35

First marketing textbook

Answer 35

Also during Era I, the first textbook appeared with the word ‘marketing’ (rather than ‘distribution’) in its title, Ralph Starr Butler et al.’s (1918) Marketing Methods

Butler’s book focused on how to manage the marketing of manufactured goods

Question 36

The neglect of marketing strategy in Era II

Answer 36

In Era II (1920–1950), ‘Formalizing the Field’

historians note that three different approaches to the study and teaching of marketing were strongly advocated: the commodity, institutional and functional approaches

Question 37

For example, the (750 page!) readings book by Rhoades (1927) classified the universe of commodities into three categories:

Answer 37

(1) agricultural (with 23 chapters, each devoted a different product),
(2) ‘products of forest and mine’ (with seven different product-chapters) and
(3) manufactured products (with 29 product-chapters).

Question 38

Let downs associated with Era II

Answer 38

However, marketing academe in Era II did not build on the promise of Era I by devoting significant attention to marketing strategy. It did not adopt the consumer-needs-oriented marketing management approach of White (1927).

Question 39

The prominence of marketing strategy in Era III

Answer 39

In Era III (1950–1980), a ‘new mainstream was formed … [that]

(1) was steeped in science as the basis for marketing thought development and
(2) devoted to viewing the field from the perspective of marketing managers in order to help them undertake successful marketing programs’

Question 40

As originally interpreted, the marketing concept had three distinct parts:

Answer 40

(1) all GE departments were going to be customer-needs oriented (which implied that formal marketing research would be especially important for new product development),
(2) there would be integrated marketing effort (which implied that advertising, logistics, sales, inventory management, etc., should all fit together) and
(3) increased profits would be the overall objective (which implied that the marketing department’s historical focus on just increasing sales would have to change)

Question 41

Levitt’s (1960) ‘Marketing myopia’ and Borden’s ‘marketing mix’

Answer 41

the most famous, most widely read marketing article of all time, reinforced the view that the marketing concept was an organisational philosophy (even though the label ‘marketing concept’ was not used in the article)

‘Marketing myopia’ argued that firms should define themselves as being in the business of satisfying certain customer needs (rather than defining themselves as a firm in an industry that produces particular products)

Question 42

Neil Borden, in his 1953 American Marketing Association presidential address, introduced the notion that the marketing manager’s job was to

Answer 42

be a ‘mixer of ingredients’, a developer of a ‘marketing mix’

Question 43

For Borden (1964), the marketing mix was comprised of 12 elements:

Answer 43

product planning, pricing, branding, channels of distribution, personal selling, advertising, promotion, packaging, display, servicing, physical handling, and fact finding and analysis

Question 44

Therefore, Alderson (1937, 1957) recognised decades ago, and the modern, highly successful area of strategic management recognises now, that

Answer 44

(1) one’s concept of competition is central to understanding strategy and
(2) the strategy of firms should be to seek a form of competitive (or ‘differential’) advantage

Question 45

After Porter’s (1980, 1985) development of industry-based strategy, scholars in the business strategy area began focusing on three additional, general approaches to business strategy:

Answer 45

resource-based strategy, competences-based strategy and knowledge-based strategy

Question 46

Era III’s scholars conceptualised ‘marketing strategy’ in two ways

Answer 46

First, it represented the overall strategy of the firm with respect to its markets

Question 47

As noted by Shaw (2012), this conceptualisation was originally proposed by Oxenfeldt (1958, p. 267),

Answer 47

A market strategy consists of two parts:
(1) the definition of market targets–selecting the types of customers whose patronage will sought; and

(2) the “composition of a marketing mix” – picking a combination of sales promotion devices that will be employed.

Question 48

McCarthy’s (1960) approach was to change Oxenfeldt’s (1958) strategy language from ‘market’ to ‘marketing’, and to reduce all of the ‘sales promotion’ elements to the 4Ps:

Answer 48

A marketing strategy consists of two facets:

(1) the definition of the target market – the selection of the market segment (the group of consumers) to whom the company wishes to appeal.
(2) The development of a “marketing mix” – the choice of the tools which the company intends to combine in order to satisfy this target group.

Question 49

Marketing strategy becomes a ‘fragment’ in Era IV

Answer 49

Marketing’s Era IV (1980–present) is characterised by Wilkie and Moore (2003, p. 132) as the ‘fragmentation of the mainstream’, which has occurred despite the general consensus that ‘the major purpose for academic work is to enhance the effectiveness of managers’ decisions’.

seen the rise of relationship marketing strategy, whose fundamental strategic imperative is that, to achieve competitive advantage and, thereby, superior financial performance, firms should identify, develop, and nurture an efficiency-enhancing, effectiveness-enhancing portfolio of relationships

Question 50

In modern strategic language, as shown in Table 3, the central premises of market segmentation strategy are to

Answer 50

achieve competitive advantage and, thereby, superior financial performance, firms should

(1) identify segments of industry demand,
(2) target specific segments of demand and
(3) develop specific ‘mixes’ for each targeted market segment.

Question 51

The fundamental thesis of brand-equity strategy is to

Answer 51

achieve competitive advantage and, thereby, superior financial performance, firms should acquire, develop, nurture and leverage an effectiveness-enhancing portfolio of high equity brands

Question 52

Marketing’s Era V, promising or problematic?

Answer 52

Wilkie and Moore’s (2003) ‘Eras of marketing thought’ culminates with Era IV, the ‘fragmentation of the mainstream’, which is nearing the end of its fourth decade