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PurposeThis paper aims to examine how message consistency pursued through integrated marketing communications (IMC) can build a strong destination brand equity in a very dynamic environment and whether this process is affected by the perceived risk of COVID-19.Design/methodology/approachData collection was conducted among 333 international tourists visiting Croatia, a destination that has experienced a remarkable boom in the summer/autumn season of 2021, regardless of the pandemic. Partial least squares–structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was used for data analysis.FindingsResults show that IMC consistency has a significant impact on the four destination brand equity dimensions, i.e. awareness, image, perceived quality and loyalty. This influence is found to be the highest on destination brand awareness and the lowest on destination brand loyalty. Perceived risk of COVID-19 moderates the impact of message consistency on brand image and perceived quality.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study that examines the role of IMC consistency in a tourism context during turbulent times. The impact of IMC consistency is analyzed on different components of destination brand equity, which addresses the most recent research call from tourism literature. The moderating effects of perceived risk are considered, thus providing additional implications in a context of high uncertainty. Finally, IMC consistency is assessed from the consumer rather than managerial viewpoints, thus adopting the necessary outside-in approach embedded in the IMC idea.
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As brand equity (BE) is a valuable, but intangible, asset of any firm, understanding BE represents a primary task for many organizations. Factors that influence the development of BE are of inordinate academic and practical significance and a source of continuous investigation. While the current literature on social media communication (SMC) and BE provides a wealth of information, our study pioneers the most recent processes of mediation and moderation of electronic word-of-mouth and product involvement (PI) in BE research. Accordingly, the results of this work will likely become one of the key sources of information in sustainable marketing planning and in the development of strategies. To accomplish this goal, we assessed the structural relationships among SMC, electronic word of mouth (e-WOM), PI, and BE. A questionnaire survey was administered concerning consumer brands in China. In this survey, due to the need for social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic, the questionnaire was distributed and collected via the internet. A total of 369 data sets were analyzed by partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The results of our investigation reveal that: (a) social media firm- and user-generated content have a positive impact on e-WOM, (b) social media firm- and user-generated content have a positive impact on BE, (c) e-WOM has a positive impact on BE and serves as an intermediary role between SMC and BE, and (d) PI exerts specific moderating effects between SMC and BE.
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PurposeThis study aims to investigate perceptions about interactive travel websites. The researchers hypothesize that engaging content, the quality of information and source credibility have a significant effect on the consumers' utilitarian motivations to continue using them in the future.Design/methodology/approachA structured survey questionnaire was used to gather data from 1,287 online users, who were members of two popular social media groups. The methodology relied on a partial least squares approach to analyze the causal relationships within an extended information adoption model (IAM).FindingsThe findings reveal that the research participants perceive the utility of interactive travel websites and are willing to continue using them, particularly the responsive ones. The research participants suggest that these sites are easy to use, capture their attention and offer them useful information on various tourism services. The results also indicate that they appreciate their source credibility (in terms of their trustworthiness and expertise of their curators) as well as their quality content.Research limitations/implicationsThis study integrates key measures from the IAM with a perceived interactivity construct, to better understand the individuals' acceptance and use of interactive websites.Practical implicationsThis research implies that service businesses ought to have engaging websites that respond to consumer queries in a timely manner. Hence, they should offer a seamless experience to their visitors to encourage loyal behaviors and revisit intentions to their online domains.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors' knowledge, there are no other studies that incorporated an interactive engagement construct with key constructs from IAM and from the technology acceptance model (TAM). This contribution underlines the importance of measuring the individuals' perceptions about the engagement capabilities of interactive media when investigating information and/or technology adoption.
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PurposeSearching, identifying and analysing the scientific literature on "corporate communication” published in scientific journals during the twenty-first century (2000–2021) and indexed in the Scopus database, as well as its possible relationship with COVID-19.Design/methodology/approachA systematic bibliographic search was carried out in Scopus and a subsequent analysis of the literature, based on variables such as year of publication, authorship, original language of the text, most used terms and concepts, journal titles, keywords and possible allusions to COVID-19 or the pandemic.Findings2023 results were initially identified, but after applying the filters that limited the results in time (2000–2021) and discriminated—according to the type of document—the results only to scientific articles, the sample finally analysed was 1,280 articles relating to "corporate communication”. It was found that these were mainly published in journals such as Corporate Communications and Journal of Communication Management, in English, and with an accentuated thematic dispersion, but mostly related to public relations, advertising and communication in general.Originality/valueThere is an article published in 2012, before the COVID-19 pandemic, in the Italian journal Igiene e sanità publica, which already established the relevance of researching the challenges and solutions to communication risks in health crisis situations.
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Purpose>Over recent years, brand semiotics have been gaining the marketing practitioners' attention for designing their brand strategy. Hence, to address this gap, the current study investigates the effect of semiotic product packaging on brand experience dimensions, brand trust and purchase intent of reputed major brands of fast-moving consumer good (FMCG) products.Design/methodology/approach>The data for this study were collected by administering a questionnaire-based survey from 254 respondents from the Delhi National Capital Region (NCR) of India, using systematic sampling. Structural equation modeling has been used to test the conceptual model and examine the hypotheses developed in the study.Findings>The results present evidence of the growing influence of semiotic product packaging upon consumer brand trust and purchase intentions. The study suggests that brand semiotics positively influence customer brand experience, brand trust and purchase intention of FMCG products.Practical implications>The research findings will benefit FMCG companies to identify how to apply semiotics in packaging to improve consumers' brand experience and influence intent to purchase.Originality/value>Research in brand semiotics on product packaging is limited, as most prior studies focus on brand semiotics in advertising, product design improvement and retail design. The present study has investigated the impact of semiotics on brand experience dimensions in product packaging, which is emerging as a critical concern for the FMCG sector particularly in the post-COVID period.
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[...]of this study, no correlation was found between age and service quality perceived by customers. According to research, transformational leaders could make a positive influence on perceived efficiency of information and communication companies by emphasizing the importance of effective use of information technology (Yee, 2000;Seyal, 2015). According to the main context of this forum, Taiwan's telecom business in 2020 was: the spread of COVID 19 virus and the trade war between America and China caused an 8 % drop in the global output value of communication equipment (Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute, 2021). In today's competitive and globalized market, telecommunication companies will emphasize that E -Service Management will have to offer better services to their customers because of improving the process and utilization of the service. [...]the E - service quality would have gradually become a core competency for all service industries (Jia & Reich, 2011;Hoerbst et al., 2011).
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With the increasing rate of internet related challenges such as cyber-attacks, it has become imperative for users to adopt safe practices while using the internet. This safety measures are known as cyber-hygiene. As universities are making tremendous efforts towards minimising the rate of cyber-attacks in higher education, keeping good cyber-hygiene culture among faculty employees and students will play a critical role. Cyber-attacks sophistication has become a global issue, especially now that virtually all business transactions, learning, and communication are gradually becoming online as part of the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic. To be able to conduct this study, a qualitative research methodology was employed for an exploratory online study of cyber-hygiene among students and employees of University of Nigeria, Nsukka. In the study, 316 responses were used, and the findings revealed that age and level of education do not have statistical significance on the cyber hygiene culture and behaviour of the respondents. Also, it was discovered that mobile phone is the most widely used device with 50.26%, followed by laptop with 35.65%. Findings also showed that 159 (50.32%) respondents were found to have low cyber-hygiene culture while 157 (49.68%) respondents have high cyber hygiene culture. Hence, participants portray poor cyber-hygiene. © 2022 IEEE.
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This paper analyses the use of TikTok by the main Spanish parties. The article studies the intensity of use of the short video social network by the accounts of the Partido Popular, Vox, Podemos and Ciudadanos, their narratives and themes, and the views obtained based on them. The research applies a content analysis to the videos published by these groups from account creation until the end of 2020, a period in which the PSOE had no presence. The corpus amounts to 182 units of analysis. The results show that the partisan use of TikTok is still in its infancy and that its intensive use is limited to newly emerging parties, with more favourable results for the most polarised groupings. Moreover, the parties do not adapt to the platform's own narrative codes, without this influencing the impact of their publications;the thematic diversity does have an impact, however. In general, the ideological orientation of the videos is greater than the sectoral orientation, in line with the polarisation in which Western democracies are immersed.
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PurposeThe objective of this short research-informed, practitioner-orientated paper is to provide a viewpoint on interactive marketing pre and post COVID-19.Design/methodology/approachThis is a conceptual article designed to articulate a viewpoint that despite COVID-19 the strategic considerations that marketers need to make remain unchanged.FindingsAs a result of the pandemic, there is much more obvious use of interactivity in other, aligned functions such as sales and customer services. The effectiveness of interactive marketing will only be increased by having focus on the fundamental roles of the marketing discipline, strategy and segmentation, and understanding customers at the individual level. We also need reminding briefly that the rules of competition had changed well before the COVID-19 pandemic. The traditional make and sell model has been substantially replaced by new technology-enabled organisations without the restrictions of high fixed costs and cloying bureaucracy. Customers can now search for and evaluate products and services independent of suppliers and now have as much information about suppliers as suppliers have of customers. This is the backcloth against which marketers face the challenges at the beginning of 2021. We conclude that there is a great future ahead. There is no reason why the best of interactive marketing will not be capable of building relationships that are great for customers, great for the people who create them, great for all stakeholders and great for the environment.Originality/valueThis is a practitioner viewpoint outlining the view that COVID-19 has not had as great of an impact on interactive marketing practice as technological change has and that interactive marketing will continue to develop after COVID-19 has receded.
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The consumption of local food, a major trend in industrialized countries around the world has experienced an unprecedented craze in the pandemic context that we are experiencing. Since the beginning of the crisis and in various media, communication about local food seems inconsistent. However, companies would have every interest in better communicating the multifaceted areas of the locality that customers value or adopting the same language if they wish to collaborate with each other. This research aims to identify and evaluate the “fit” or the “gap” of the different local food’ meanings of Canadian agri-food stakeholders through data mining of one of their communication media: Twitter. Using tweets by over 1300 Twitter accounts from Canadian agri-food companies and a popular hashtag, we analyze a sample of their tweets in 2019 and 2020 by creating and using a local food’ keyword dictionary based on the concept of proximity. Term frequency and multivariate analysis of variance of 16,585 tweets about local food show significant differences in dimensions of proximity used in communications. This study shows the interest of using the concept of proximity to better define and understand the valuation of local food products. In addition, it offers a methodology capable of distinguishing the nuances of meaning of the locality of products using natural data that is accessible via social media.
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The omnichannel approach to forming marketing strategies for the development of the green competitiveness of enterprises is seen as a process for the inseparable interaction of marketing-mix elements that are aimed at promoting green competitiveness. This approach integrates traditional and digital marketing communication channels and provides consideration for stakeholder interests. The effectiveness of applying the omnichannel approach to the formation of marketing strategies to develop the green competitiveness of enterprises depends on a set of marketing communication channels, which, in various combinations, can increase or decrease the level of companies’ green competitiveness. For that purpose, this paper proposes a scientific approach to identifying the quality parameters of marketing communication channels, which involves testing the hypothesis that statistically significant relationships exist between their quality parameters and the levels of green competitiveness. The objects analyzed in the paper comprise large Ukrainian production companies that are part of the agro-industrial, mechanical engineering, and food industries, and that work in both the local and international markets. According to the results of the calculations, four relevant parameters were identified for determining the quality of the marketing communication channels: the speed of loading pages, the failure rate, image, and remarketing activities.