rss_2.0Sciendo RSS Feed for NIM Marketing Intelligence Reviewhttps://sciendo.com/journal/NIMMIRhttps://www.sciendo.comhttps://sciendo-parsed.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/64725a11215d2f6c89dc5140/cover-image.jpghttps://sciendo.com/journal/NIMMIR140216https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/nimmir-2023-0018<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>Brand communication is entering a new era. Immersive technologies such as augmented reality (AR) ) and virtual reality (VR) enable memorable experiences along the entire customer journey as the combination of real and virtual elements creates innovative forms of consumer-brand interaction. Read in our interview how to implement successful immersive campaigns that people care about and share on social media. Julian Weiss, co-founder and CEO of Hamburg-based agency headraft, expects many more XR (extended reality) applications as “retailing will increasingly become an experience space.” He sees their greatest potential in a symbiosis of real and virtual elements.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/nimmir-2023-00182023-10-26T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/nimmir-2023-0013<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>Augmented reality (AR) is gaining recognition among executives as a powerful marketing tool. Unlike virtual reality, AR integrates virtual content into the real world, providing consumers with interactive experiences. AR applications like IKEA Place and Dulux Visualizer allow users to visualize furniture or paint colors in their homes, while AR games like Pokémon Go generate new revenue streams. The increasing availability of AR capabilities in smartphones and the creation of efficient developer tools have contributed to ist breakthrough. AR offers various levels of local presence, ranging from simple overlays to highly immersive mixed-reality experiences. The potential of AR extends beyond virtual reality, as it can create a new form of integrated three-dimensional Internet. AR marketing can enhance brand evaluations and emotional consumer-brand relationships, particularly through inspiration and closeness. Companies should consider AR as a tool for branding, as it has shown positive effects on brand attitudes, product evaluations, purchase intentions and word-of-mouth. Managers are encouraged to experiment with AR to understand ist potential and stay competitive in the evolving digital landscape.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/nimmir-2023-00132023-10-26T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/nimmir-2023-0011<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>Virtual commerce has the potential to transform the shopping experience. It is highly interactive and can create immersive experiences when consumers wear head-mounted displays. Benefits include increased telepresence, better size and proportion judgement, customizable shopping environments, highly personalized decision support and social interaction opportunities. Technological advances in VR hardware, such as improved display resolution and reduced motion sickness, contribute to a more seamless and enjoyable shopping experience. These benefits can lead to higher purchase rates. However, there are also privacy concerns due to the many ways in which data can be collected. While the future of VR shopping is difficult to predict, AR applications are already well established. Tech giants, research institutions, and startups will play a critical role in shaping the future of virtual commerce.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/nimmir-2023-00112023-10-26T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/nimmir-2023-0016<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>The metaverse and extended realities offer new avenues for studying consumer behavior. Consumer neuroscience tools are being utilized to understand interactions in these virtual spaces. The 3S framework (Stimuli, Sensors and Signals) provides a foundation for applying these tools. Stimuli can be manipulated to study brand choices, and sensors capture physiological responses such as heart rate and facial expressions. Different interface devices like monitors, smartphones and head-mounted displays offer varying immersion levels and sensor compatibility. Augmented reality requires minimal additional technology, while virtual reality allows detailed tracking of user interactions. Mixed reality combines both. Applications of extended realities in consumer research include pretesting products and designs, virtual try-on experiences and analyzing the impact of virtual presences. The available technology and ongoing advancements present exciting opportunities for understanding consumer behavior in virtual and augmented spaces.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/nimmir-2023-00162023-10-26T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/nimmir-2023-0012<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>The concept of the metaverse, a virtual world with immersive 3-D environments, has gained significant attention and is expected to affect how we interact and communicate. While there is no consensus on its future, many brands are preparing for its potential. The metaverse offers unique marketing opportunities, enabling brands to provide offerings that are impossible in the real world. It can serve as a third space for retailing, where brands can create immersive experiences and overcome physical limitations. Metaverse advertising should be interactive and immersive to maximize its potential, while brand communities and events in the metaverse offer new avenues for engagement. The metaverse also allows companies to unlock new revenue streams through virtual products, NFT collections and digital twins. However, the metaverse brings challenges, including technical issues, privacy concerns, avatar misbehavior and the need for virtual and real coexistence. Brands must navigate these challenges and conduct further research to understand and maximize the benefits while minimizing risks in the metaverse.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/nimmir-2023-00122023-10-26T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/nimmir-2023-0010ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/nimmir-2023-00102023-10-26T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/nimmir-2023-0014<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>The “imagination gap” is experienced by customers when they struggle to envision product benefits or service outcomes. It continues to be a significant challenge across industries. This gap often leads to delayed or abandoned purchases, resulting in substantial revenue losses for companies. Businesses are increasingly turning to extended reality technologies such as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) to address this issue. AR projects digital content into physical environments, allowing customers to visualize products in their surroundings and make more informed purchase decisions. VR, on the other hand, transports users to digital environments, creating immersive experiences that enhance learning, healthcare and other applications. Both AR and VR technologies have the potential to bridge the imagination gap and provide value to businesses and consumers. Strategic considerations include assessing the bottom-line impact of purchasing decisions, selecting the appropriate technology for specific objectives, deciding at what stages of the customer journey to deploy AR and VR and addressing privacy and falsity concerns. Looking ahead, neuro-enhanced reality, enabled by brain-computer interfaces, holds the promise of even more immersive experiences.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/nimmir-2023-00142023-10-26T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/nimmir-2023-0015<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>Sensing in the physical world differs from sensing in virtual worlds. As visualized in Penfield’s homunculus, touch and taste play a big role in physical surroundings. In contrast, the “Homunculus Metaversensis” for virtual reality would look different, reflecting the dominance of visual and auditory perception in virtual experiences facilitated by technologies like head-mounted displays. To create truly immersive experiences, touch, balance, movement, smell and taste are all relevant. While some progress has been made in haptic feedback and olfactory stimulation, advancement in these fields is still limited. Therefore, augmented reality, which combines physical and digital experiences, may be a more viable option for satisfying multiple senses in the present. However, future breakthroughs in virtual reality technology could enhance sensory experiences in the metaverse.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/nimmir-2023-00152023-10-26T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/nimmir-2023-0017<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>The integration of AI into consumer services is transforming the way people make decisions. AI is becoming more human-like, with chatbots, voice assistants and robots adopting human features and behavior. Consumers react differently to assistants with a human-like appearance than to advice from a web page, and the behavior of AI advisors influences consumer trust and decision-making. The results of an experiment comparing human advisors, robotic advisors with and without eye contact, and text-based services show that human advisors are trusted the most, but robotic advisors are preferred over text-based services. Human-like advisors increase trust and satisfaction. Extended human features like eye contact are essential for establishing trust and positive consumer responses. Companies should consider using humanoid advisors and incorporating eye contact to enhance customer experience. Consumers should be aware of the influence of human-like AI and stay informed about AI developments.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/nimmir-2023-00172023-10-26T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/gfkmir-2017-0012<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p> Consumers have become always on and constantly connected. Search costs have plummeted, individuals’ abilities to digitally express themselves and their opinions increased, and the opportunities for superior business and market intelligence for companies have skyrocketed. This has given rise to more, richer, and new sources of consumer data that marketers can leverage, and has fueled the data-driven insights revolution in marketing. But there is more to come very soon. In marketing, we are quickly moving from the age of the connected consumer to the age of the augmented consumer. New technologies like wearable devices, smart sensors, consumer IoT devices, smart homes, and, critically, artificial intelligence ecosystems will not only connect, but will substantially and meaningfully augment the consumer in terms of their thoughts and behaviors. The biggest challenge for marketers will lie in how they approach marketing to this new type of consumer, particularly personal artificial intelligence ecosystems. This means marketing to algorithms, instead of people, and that is very different to how most marketing work is currently done.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/gfkmir-2017-00122017-10-24T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/gfkmir-2017-0019<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p> The way in which we communicate is changing radically. In the analog world, promotional communication was consumed rather passively. In today’s digital age, consumers have become more active. Especially, the younger consumer generation - referred to as iBrains- are increasingly spreading their own product experiences across digital channels into the virtual world. Stimulus-response communication still has its place, but must be supplemented with interactive offers that enable a dialogue with consumers. Diverse communication channels must be utilized - analog as well as digital - in order to reach the young target groups. As consumers tend to be “always on”, they use different communication channels simultaneously, leading to continuous partial attention. Therefore, not only new channels are necessary but the entire communication style and design need to be adapted. It is not enough to simply make contact. Instead of thinking about shortening the message, creativity should be put into creatively combining different building blocks of communication.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/gfkmir-2017-00192017-10-24T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/gfkmir-2017-0014<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p> In a classic seeded WOM marketing campaign, a company sends product samples to a selected group of influencers, and encourages them share the product information and their own opinions with other consumers. Positive effects include more WOM for the focal product in the target segment, but also in additional segments. But there are additional spillover effects on the brand and the product category level and they are negative. More conversations about the focal product reduced the “off-topic” conversations about other brands in the same category as well as other products of the same brand. These negative brand and category spillover effects are stronger when the focal product is of a more functional nature. Marketers tend to consider only positive spillovers to be beneficial for a company, but negative spillovers should not be immediately classified as “bad news.” There are upsides to this effect that managers can use in their favor.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/gfkmir-2017-00142017-10-24T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/gfkmir-2017-0015<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p> Social TV is the simultaneous consumption of television alongside social media chatter about the programming. This topic is highly relevant for marketers. Usually it is considered as a bad thing for TV advertisers. While there can be distraction from the ads, marketers can also benefit from positive effects. Consumers’ multiscreen activities can be used to attract more viewers, to leverage TV campaigns and to increase sales. This chatter creates free exposure for the brand online, extends the reach of television ad campaigns to the online space, and offers real-time feedback to advertisers on how their ads are being received. To take advantage of social TV, marketers need to develop a social media and ad design strategy for TV shows. Not every “social show” is good for them. Many programs receive a high volume of program-related chatter at the expense of advertiser-related word-of-mouth, but some programs generate high levels of online conversations that can also benefit their advertisers. Marketers are well served to identify those programs that are conducive to advertiser-related chatter. Also, specific ad designs can further encourage buzz.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/gfkmir-2017-00152017-10-24T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/gfkmir-2017-00018<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p> In the good old times shop manager knew their customers personally and were able to tailor offerings to their needs and desires. But how can we create meaningful moments for connected consumers in global markets? Yasmeen Ahmad explains how in digital times data fill in. Smart algorithms help generate insights and enable real time action to provide the right product and service to the right customer at the right time. Companies that don’t want to be left behind a digital elite need to remain close to their customers across multiple digital touchpoints. Being capable of reading, interpreting and acting upon consumers` traces is a prerequisite.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/gfkmir-2017-000182017-10-24T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/gfkmir-2017-0016<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p> To avoid overtargeting consumers or targeting them at the wrong moment, mobile ads need to be relevant. Geographically, consumers have been shown to be more responsive to promotional offers from shops that were located close to them. For the lead time of promotions, insights are similar: The closer in time, the better the response. When considering the interplay of time and space, though, the picture becomes more complex. Recipients need enough time to respond given their distance from the promoted venue, but too much time may reduce response rates. It appears that people do not plan too far in advance for events such as movie watching or with small-screen devices such as smartphones. Another context that can affect people’s response to mobile ads is that of the environment - what is going on around people. In a study of mobile promotions during subway rides, mobile campaigns turned out to be more effective on more crowded trains. Even if this finding cannot be generalized to all forms of crowded environments, it clearly shows that context matters. Understanding its impact can help marketers become better gatekeepers by delivering the right mobile ad to the right person at the right time at the right place in the right context.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/gfkmir-2017-00162017-10-24T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/gfkmir-2017-0013<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p> Many social media handbooks recommend targeting customers’ close connections and encouraging consumers to spread the word about their products and services among friends. But according to the findings of this research this strategy might not be the most effective way to build positive momentum. In fact, it might just do the opposite. The feelings of closeness that WOM senders experience toward their recipients determine what they share. Being close instills the desire to protect a recipient from having a bad experience. Therefore, communicating negative information, which highlights potential negative outcomes or attributes of a product, becomes more likely to be shared among close friends. In relations with loose acquaintances the motive to impress is more prevalent. Therefore, communicating positive information, which is more likely to shed a positive light on the WOM sender, is more likely to be shared in such instances. To encourage positive WOM for seeding campaigns, marketers should select the right platform and monitor closeness. Further, by framing the context of the campaign in the right way, they can also insure more positive WOM for a brand.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/gfkmir-2017-00132017-10-24T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/gfkmir-2017-0017<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p> Most analyses of the social structure of a network implicitly assume that the relationships in the network are relatively stable. We present evidence that this is not the case. The focal network of this study grew in bursts rather than monotonously over time, and the bursts were highly localized. Links were added and deleted in nearby localities and are not randomly dispersed throughout the network. Also changes in structure lead to simultaneous changes in self-stated interests of its members. For SNA marketing applications the findings suggest interesting improvements. Local bursts around a seed can change the structure of the network dramatically and therefore a marketer’s influence and his chances of success. Therefore, network measurements should be carried out more frequently and closer to the actual implementation of a seeding campaign. To detect these abrupt, dramatic local changes marketers also use a finer resolution. Further, recommendation algorithms that simultaneously account for changes in network structure and content should be applied.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/gfkmir-2017-00172017-10-24T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/gfkmir-2017-0011ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/gfkmir-2017-00112017-10-24T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/gfkmir-2017-0009<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>Online advertisers have the non-trivial job of jointly assessing the effects of banner ad design elements available in a large number of such formats. Our research found that animated formats are superior to static formats in most settings. It confirms that they can improve engagement, since they can generate higher recall, attract user attention, and create favorability for the advertised brand. Yet, static formats can still be effective when it comes to price ads and re-targeting. Most interestingly, we found that re-targeted ads are effective only if they offer price incentives. Another interesting finding is that the tactic of serving blanks – for instance, for page views from foreign countries – can distort simple measures of campaign effectiveness, such as click-through rates. </p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/gfkmir-2017-00092017-04-27T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/gfkmir-2017-0007<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>Digital transformation has a strong impact on the retail industry. Activities that were once retail sector are moving to online stores, and specialized third parties are taking over physical distribution and payment. Naturally, store-based retailers are not taking this sitting down and many are reacting by starting to “digitalize” their point of sale. But in order to understand the true impact of digitalization and to react adequately, one needs to think backwards from the consumer and enter the scene at a much earlier stage. In our digital age, need occurrence, shopping and consumption are moving much closer in time and space and are being naturally integrated into our daily routine. If retailers still want their share, they have to build an ecosystem of presence and organize themselves around consumption and lived reality of their consumers. They have to be present in the mind of the consumer at the very instance a need arises. Being recalled in time matters now more than ever.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.1515/gfkmir-2017-00072017-04-27T00:00:00.000+00:00en-us-1