Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2004. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 126-135). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2004. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 126-135). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (MTech (Marketing Management))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2008 / The research study provides an overview of the deployment of marketing by architectural practices in the Western Cape. It furthermore illustrates how the Internet is being utilised and establishes the motivations behind Web presence or its lack thereof. In recent years, an increasingly competitive landscape in the service industry, transformation in consumer buying behaviour, as well as deregulations in the professional service environment, such as the relaxation of advertising bans, make marketing an increasingly important competitive tool for architectural service providers in South Africa. However, due to the notable status and previous restrictions associated with the profession, many architectural practices are still reluctant to engage in marketing activities to promote their firms, remaining largely reactive and preserving a myopic view of marketing. In particular the use of the Internet is deemed to be a less required facet in the application of the marketing mix in this industry, which can mainly be attributed to the service provider’s lack of time and skill in this area of expertise. However, the literature suggests that the Internet can increase the opportunity for differentiation within the professional service environment, and from the marketer’s perspective, there is a considerable potential in the future profitability of marketing and Internet developments for this industry sector. Moreover, the trend that more consumers are adopting the Internet as a primary source for information emphasises the importance for architectural practices to adopt a holistic marketing approach that includes the Internet. The study revealed that there is generally a positive sentiment towards marketing, and the adoption of a Website in particular. Overall, however, most respondents seem to lack the understanding that a Website’s relative contribution to the service product and marketing success is determined by its role in the overall strategic direction of their business. A more focused marketing approach could result in a greater competitive advantage in an industry that is characterised by very low levels of differentiation. Due to the fact that professional service providers still tend to be reluctant to engage in marketing activities, it is recommended that marketing and Internet professionals start developing industry related offerings, taking into account above mentioned considerations, to proactively approach architectural practices. Furthermore, industry specific education on the benefits of marketing and the Internet to the architectural service industry, facilitated by governing bodies, marketing and IT professionals, could assist in shifting negative perceptions and bringing the marketing and architectural industry closer together, thereby encouraging mutually beneficial business relationships

M.Comm. / The animal health industry in South Africa is static and products are of a generic nature. Most of the international players are represented in South Africa. The fact that there are so many players in the market leads to severe competition. In this study the possible application of relationship marketing in the animal health industry was investigated. Sanvet, one of the leading companies in the industry was used for the study. The company was established in September 1994 through an amalgamation of the animal health divisions of Agrihold and Premier Pharmaceuticals. In relationship marketing the focus moves from a short-term transactional approach to long-term relationship marketing. Relationship marketing is the integration of marketing, quality and customer service. The provision of quality customer service involves an understanding of what the customer buys and determines how additional value can be added to the product or service being offered. Quality is the link between what a customer expects and the customers perception of what is being offered. The four P's model is very limited and in relationship marketing three additional elements are being used. The elements are people, processes and the provision of customer service. Customer service creates a clearly differentiated and superior value proposition, and is the central focus of all the other elements. Through the acknowledgement of the contribution of people to getting and keeping customers, within the overall marketing mix, the company's competitive performance will be substantially enhanced. People can be categorised into the following groups based on their role in the company: contractors, modifiers, influencers and isolators. Although the human element is very important in customer service, no amount of energy from personnel can counter poor performance due to unsatisfactory processes. In relationship marketing not only the relationship with the target markets is being addressed but also the relationship with the intemal markets, referral markets, supplier markets, employee markets and influence markets. The employees of the company are the core of an internal marketing plan. Employees are seen as internal customers and jobs as internal products. The ideal form of marketing is to get customers to do the marketing on your behalf. Referral markets within the industry must be identified and marketing activities directed at them. The traditional adversarial relationship between suppliers and their customer must change to a new form of relationship based on co-operation. The competition between companies in their effort to attract suitably motivated and trained employees is increasing. Suitable employees are becoming very scarce resources. Companies must focus their marketing activities to ensure that they and the company are first choice for a potential employee. Financial markets, regulatory markets, the government and shareholders form the influence markets and marketing activities should be addressed to these markets to ensure a long-term relationship. This study was limited to investigating the relationship with the internal markets, referral markets and supplier markets. It was found that relationship marketing can be applied in the animal health industry. The recommendations in this study can be used to draw up a complete relationship marketing strategy for Sanvet.

Organisations are increasingly under pressure to meet financial and other objectives in dynamic and competitive markets, that are being driven more by services than by products. Marketing as a function needs to become more accountable with respect to the marketing investments that are made and the returns generated from these programmes, and hence to increase shareholder value. Intangible assets are comprising a growing proportion of this shareholder value, to the extent that 75% of the value of the organisation is currently made up of intangibles such as Human Equity, Brand Equity and Customer Equity. Thus the marketer needs to build the marketing-based intangible assets of Brand Equity, the inherent value of the brand, and Customer Equity, the sum of the lifetime values to the organisation of its current and future customers. To be able to monitor and manage marketing’s contribution, these assets need to be measured, and the effectiveness of marketing programmes needs to be determined ideally in financial terms, e.g. ROMI – Return on Marketing Investment. The purpose of this research study was to develop and test a framework of Customer Equity in the financial services sector, to guide marketing spend so that shareholder value is built by leveraging the marketing intangibles. Consequently, the objectives were to develop a model of Customer Equity, to calculate Customer Lifetime Value of customers in a segment, to determine the value drivers and the elasticity relation of Customer Equity, and finally to provide guidelines to organisations to improve their Customer Equity. The first area of research was in the field of Marketing metrics, the set of measures that helps organisations to understand their marketing performance. The recommendation for organisations is to develop a marketing dashboard, or range of key marketing indicators, which would include short-term performance measures, e.g. market share or customer satisfaction, as well as long-term planning measures, e.g. Brand Equity and Customer Lifetime Value. Brand Equity was then reviewed as a valuable intangible asset. Various models have been developed to explain the different sources, components and outcomes of ii Brand Equity, as it is a multidimensional construct. The measurement and valuation of Brand Equity was also researched, and its link to shareholder value. Customer Equity, an alternative market-based intangible asset that can be a driver of shareholder value, was also reviewed. The conclusion from a review of the models is that there are two schools: the Blattberg, Gupta and colleagues school, which tends to focus on internal analysis as typically used in direct marketing applications; and the Rust and colleagues school, which tends to focus externally on the customer and the competition. Both schools have something to contribute: the internal school, on accurate understanding of Customer Lifetime Value, and the external school, on the relative importance of the drivers of Customer Equity. This research also makes a contribution to the Brand Equity / Customer Equity debate, analysing similarities and differences, and developing a model to explain the trade-off between the two concepts. A combination of the two schools was used to develop a model of Customer Equity, including supply side inputs (for accurate CLTV calculations) and demand side inputs (for determining drivers and their elasticities). Using input from the databases of a financial institution, Customer Lifetime Value and Customer Equity for customers in the SME market sector were calculated. A convenience sample of 251 SME’s was interviewed on the demand side using a structured questionnaire, to develop data on the drivers of their importance and the relative performance of banks. A statistical model was then developed, using Principal Components Regression (PCR) analysis, to determine the drivers of Customer Equity, the factors influencing these and the relative sensitivities. A key contribution of this research was the development of the Probability of Defection as a measure of the dependent variable in the multiple regression. The model was tested by determining the ROI of two marketing programmes from the financial institution, to guide their marketing spend. Finally, a Customer Equity Management Process was developed to assist organisations in implementing a Customer Equity focus. / Prof. Chris Jooste

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to determine the extent of congruence between service providers’ perceptions of customer satisfaction and customer-reported satisfaction in the context of optometric services. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected via mail surveys from a sample of German optometrists and their customers. Usable responses were obtained from 388 optometrists and 2,237 customers. Findings – Results show that the underlying configurations of satisfaction attributes decompose into eight factors in the case of optometrists and five factors in the case of customers. The extent of congruence between the two groups is weak. Research limitations/implications – Replications among other optometrist and customer samples are needed to validate the current findings. Also to gain more pointed insights into the similarities and disparities between service providers’ perceptions of their customers’ satisfaction and customer-reported satisfaction, extension of research to other service sectors would be fruitful. Practical implications – The overall inconsistencies between the optometrists and customers underscore the need for accurate assessment of customer perceptions for business success. For stronger business performance, service providers should be trained to look at satisfaction from the perspective of customers by using customers’ definitions. Originality/value – The study used a dyadic approach in collecting the data. The factor congruency technique was employed to determine the extent of similarities and disparities between the two groups. A general lack of customer knowledge has implications for service providers.

To enhance their organizational performance, banks can benefit from the experiences of manufacturing firms and gainfully employ quality and process improvement philosophies with proven track records in manufacturing industries. This article presents a framework, which integrates root cause analysis with benchmarking, process reengineering and continuous improvement. A case study is employed to illustrate the application of the framework and to demonstrate how it can benefit a bank in lowering costs, enhancing productivity, responding to customer demands, reducing complaints and improving customer satisfaction.

No / The trend towards internationalisation in many service industries has increased the need for both managers and academics to collect cross-cultural/national consumer-perceived service quality data. Failure to establish cross-cultural equivalence and to detect differences in cross-national response bias will, however, affect data comparability, may invalidate the research results and could therefore lead to incorrect inferences about attitudes and behaviours across national groups. By initially focussing on developments in the mono-cultural service quality literature, a framework is presented whereby academics and managers can assess the potential impact of these international measurement issues. Existing cross-cultural service quality literature is reviewed and the extent to which these issues are addressed is highlighted. Methods for detecting and correcting cross-national response biases are discussed.

This dissertation examines the relationship between the situational context of a decision, the amount of information, attributed source of the information and perceived risk in a professional service setting. Perceived risk theory, the dichotomy of goods and services, and factors unique to professional services are discussed relevant to consumer choice. Hypotheses stemming from the literature are offered relating to the perception of performance and social risk, and intent to retain to the amount of information, the attributed source of the information and situational context of the choice. The research was conducted in three phases. Phase one consisted of the development and testing of risk situations and also the construction of the information treatments. Phase two consisted of a pretest to measure the reliability of the test instrument used in phase three. The third phase consisted of two 2 x 2 x 2 factorial design experiments. One experiment used performance risk situation as an independent variable, the other a social risk situation. Both situations were at two levels, high and low risk. The remaining independent variables in both experiments were: the amount of information, at two levels, high and low; and attributed source of the information, either personal sources or advertising. Multiple dependent variables measured three constructs; perceived performance risk; perceived social risk; and intent to retain. Reliability was assessed using (1) correlation analysis; (2) Cronbach's alpha; and (3) factor analysis. Statistical techniques used to analyze the data were (1) multivariate analysis of variance; (2) univariate analysis of variance; and (3) multivariate tests of simple effects. In general, the data analysis resulted in mixed support for the hypothesized effects. While partial support was gained for the effect of information source and amount of information on perceived risk involved in a professional service selection, it also indicated that the effects may be situation specific; and in most cases the effects are not independent but rather interact. Results of the dissertation are discussed with respect to major findings and significance to the area of professional service marketing. The dissertation concludes with a discussion of the limitations of the study areas for future research. / Ph. D.

This thesis analyzes satisfaction of customer satisfaction with the services of Odyseatour canoe and raft rental. Conducted survey aims to find, how are the customers satisfied with the company services. This thesis also includes analysis of competitors and SWOT analysis. Results of conducted analysis are recapitulated within the summary and further measures are suggested, which should lead to improvement of company services.