Publications by the Academy and members

Against the implicit politics of service-dominant logic Hietanen, J., Andéhn, M. & Bradshaw, A.

Synopsis: Few recent topics in marketing have met such immediate popularity and critique as Vargo and Lusch’s service-dominant logic (SDL). While many have criticized SDL scholarship for a lack of cultural sophistication, coherence, and relevance, it has nevertheless maintained and expanded its own distinct stream of ideas. Recently, Vargo and Lusch have proposed that SDL could be extended into a theory of society. We criticize this notion by contrasting their views on commodity value with Marxist and post-Marxist literatures, finding SDL ill-equipped to understand consumer culture, but also continuing to propagate simplistic and misguided views of “value” in commodity markets. We conclude by challenging SDL’s suitability as candidate for all-encompassing social theorizing because of its tacit neoliberalism.

The haunting specter of retro consumption

Ahlberg, O., Hietanen, J. & Soila, T.

Synopsis: We propose to intensify theorizing on retromarketing and nostalgic consumption by further developing “hauntology” as a conceptual lens for assessing the retro aesthetic as a commodified affective excess of meaning. This allows us to explore the consumption of marketized retrospective signs not from the perspective of personal experiences or creative meaning-makings but rather as affective encounters that desire in consumption desperately latches onto. In our view, it is thus not an aesthetic satisfaction, nostalgic comfort, or playful emancipations that are offered to us by retro consumption. Following a darker development of hauntology, we find ourselves instead thrust into spectral presences that we can never quite articulate, a haunting within us in an atmosphere of late capitalism where temporal belief in the future has been “cancelled.”

Vesa Markuksela & Anu Valtonen Dance with a fish? Sensory human-nonhuman encounters in the waterscape of match fishing.

Synopsis: This study sets out to explore human–nonhuman encounters in the leisure activity of match fishing. Informed by practice theory, studies on the body and the senses, and the human–animal literature, it focuses on analyzing the practice-specific, embodied and sensory doings and sayings of both humans and nonhumans during match fishing. The findings from three year sensory ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Finnish Lapland suggest that human–nonhuman encounters can be characterised as partner dancing. That is, this phenomenon is tantamount to a dance between a fish and an angler taking place in a dancehall of water, in which the weather acts as an orchestra framing the rhythm and tempo of the dance. Considering both fish and anglers, the study emphasises the agential and embodied quality of human–nonhuman encounters. It challenges the dominant position of the human, suggesting a move from anthropomorphism to zoomorphism – animalising the angler in a dance with a fish. The study also provides novel insights into the dynamic nature of a waterscape, highlighting its dual nature consisting of the underwater world and the above-water world. In summary, this study offers a detailed account of the dynamic interactions between humans, nonhumans and the natural environment.

Harnessing marketing automation for B2B content marketing

Joel Mero & Heini Taiminen

Synopsis: The growing importance of digitalization to B2B customer purchasing decisions has motivated B2B sellers to create digital content that leads potential buyers to interact with their company. This trend has engendered a new paradigm referred to as ‘content marketing.’ This study investigates the organizational processes for developing valuable and timely content to meet customer needs and for integrating content marketing with B2B selling processes. The results of this single case study demonstrate the importance of systematic and customer-centric processes in creating valuable content that engages potential sales leads and motivates them to identify themselves on the firm’s website. Once a prospective customer has been identified, marketing automation allows the marketers to nurture the leads via personalized content delivery to their business needs. While describing the organizational processes that support the use of marketing automation in content marketing, the study introduces and visualizes a marketing and sales funnel concept, which builds on the existing sales funnel models. The contribution of the marketing and sales funnel concept points to the vital importance of fostering collaboration between marketing and sales functions to improve the effectiveness of B2B selling efforts in the increasingly digitized business environment. To sum up, the study shows how content marketing can be combined with B2B selling processes via marketing automation in ways that achieve business benefits.

Consumer Culture Theory's future in marketing

Synopsis: This commentary offers a view into the contributions of Consumer Culture Theory (CCT) in marketing and charts promising future avenues for research and marketing practices building a culturally sensitive and reflexive approach. After highlighting pioneering CCT perspectives, an outline for future directions in marketing is offered emphasizing the assembling of experiences, shaping of brands’ symbolic universes, institutional and creative market processes, and networked and algorithmic mediation of consumption ideologies and desires. Overall, CCT’s future looks promising in its commitment and ability to foster critical, contextually sensitive, and reflexive cultural insights into marketing – an important foundation for marketing strategy and practices.

Corporate social responsibility in luxury contexts: potential pitfalls and how to overcome them

Sipilä, J., Alavi, S.,Edinger-Schons, L.M., Dörfer, S. & Schmitz, C.

Synopsis: Recent marketing research has identified mixed effects of luxury companies’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) engagement on customer behavior. Therefore, this article aims to develop an improved understanding of CSR in the luxury context. We propose that, unless carefully implemented, CSR engagement leads to lower financial performance and decreased customer loyalty for luxury companies, because customers tend to think that luxury companies merely engage in CSR for egoistic reasons, such as gaining a competitive advantage. This is particularly the case if consumers actively deliberate on the company’s CSR efforts. However, luxury companies can mitigate these pitfalls and reap the potential rewards of CSR engagement by (1) focusing their CSR efforts on employee wellbeing instead of philanthropic donations, or (2) framing their brands as sustainable instead of exclusive. We find consistent support for our theorizing in five empirical studies. The results contribute to existing knowledge on stakeholder reactions to luxury brands’ CSR and can help managers successfully navigate the implementation of CSR in luxury contexts.

Branding with a consumer focus

Synopsis: Managing a profitable brand relationship is critical as such effort results in brand preference, positive word-of-mouth, brand engagement, willingness to pay more for the brand, and repurchase intention. In one research , we demonstrate that customers establish a sense of oneness with new and unfavorable brands when the brand serves as a self-presentational strategy—self-presentation by brand. In another research , we found that a branding strategy that considers influencing brand preference and willingness to pay should incorporate customers’ temporal focus into authentic and aspirational branding considerations, and one-on-one marketing approach to branding. To further understand and to avoid a love-becomes-hate effect from a positive brand relationship caused by a service failure , we show that a quick recovery that follows an exclusive brand offering positively impacts on the brand relationship among betrayed consumers, but not so effective among highly disappointed consumers. Thus, apart from responding to customer complaints with an apology and resolving problems promptly, brand managers can provide highly betrayed customers with an exclusive brand offering that requires them to return to the brand in the near future. As such, brand offerings can serve as a means to treat them as valuable customers and restore the profitable brand relationship.

The Value propositions of multi-, cross-, and omni-channel retailing

Yrjölä, M., Saarijärvi, H. & Nummela, H.

Synopsis: This study examines how retailers leverage multiple-channel strategies in relation to their customer value propositions (CVPs). More specifically, the purpose of this paper is to identify and analyze how multi-, cross- and omni-channel CVPs differ in terms of how they create value and which types of shopping motivations they aim to satisfy. This conceptual paper presents and synthesizes three theoretical discussions pertaining to consumer shopping motivations, CVPs and multiple-channel retailing strategies into a tentative conceptual framework. Nine case examples are used to illustrate three different channel strategies: multi-channel, cross-channel and omni-channel retailing. Based on the analysis, a tentative framework for understanding retailers’ channel strategies is suggested. Retailers will benefit from a structured and synthesized understanding of the differences between multiple-channel strategies and their links to CVPs. This paper introduces and integrates the concept of CVPs with the literature on multi-channel retailing strategies.

Measuring the Value of Social Media Marketing from a Destination Marketing Organization Perspective

Kumpu, J., Pesonen, J., & Heinonen, J.

Synopsis: Even though social media is one of the most significant marketing tools in tourism, the measurement of its value is still developing. Assessing return-on-investment on social media marketing is challenging. Thus, destination marketing organizations (DMOs) are nonetheless pouring money and time in social media marketing without being aware of the results. In this study, we seek to understand what DMOs are measuring in social media marketing that they do and why. The qualitative data was gathered via semi-structured interviews among eight representatives of Finnish DMOs. The interview responses were analyzed with a theory-guided content analysis method. The results demonstrate that even though the goals for social media presence are clear, the actions taken are more of an experimental nature and undocumented. Only the basic metrics that the platforms automatically provide are used and the evaluation of financial value is difficult. However, social media marketing creates value beyond financial value. Non-measurable data like customer emotions and opinions in various channels are considered as important especially to understand customer engagement. Even though the evaluation of financial value is challenging the total value of social media marketing is considered extremely valuable. Social media marketing is utilized in decision-making by top management especially with the help of measurable data. In addition to this, non-measurable insights are utilized in product development and marketing planning.

Engaging a product-focused sales force in solution selling: Interplay of individual and organizational conditions

Salonen, A., Terho, H., Böhm, E., Virtanen, A., & Rajala, R.

Synopsis: In B2B markets, firms increasingly seek to provide customer solutions instead of merely selling goods or services. Boundary-spanning salespeople are pivotal for crafting the solution offering and communicating its value-in-use to customers. However, salespeople are often reluctant to engage in solution selling and earlier literature has indicated that companies might need to replace large portions of their sales forces to achieve this transformation. Against this background, the purpose of this study is to explain how manufacturers can tackle the critical managerial challenge of transforming a product-focused sales force to undertake solution selling. Through an application of configurational theory, the authors explain how individual and organizational conditions combine to determine salespeople’s engagement in solution selling. Specifically, the study uses multilevel, multisource empirical data from the sales organization of a global supplier of building solutions nested at three levels: salespersons, solution champions, and sales managers. A fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis reveals no single, optimal way to overcome transformation challenges. Rather, consistent with prior research, solution selling requires certain types of salespeople, because value-based selling arises as a necessary condition for successful engagement. Yet, after meeting this foundational condition, a heterogeneous sales force can be successfully engaged to solution selling, as long as the organization provides appropriate support that is tailored to individual salespersons’ needs. This viable support can come from either sales managers or solution champions who engage in market shaping through negotiation of institutional resistance.