Personal Blog Marketing: Chapter in book on Marketing in the Cyber Era

A new book titled "Marketing in the Cyber Era: Strategies and Emerging Trends" has just come out. The book is published by IGI GlobalQuite excited as it has a chapter which I co-authored with Dr. Ezlika Ghazali, titled 'Personal blog marketing".

I have extracted this chapter from my PhD thesis and expanded on some of the key issues.

Here is the abstract:

This chapter looks at the commercialization of personal blogs and also defines some of the key terms that have emerged as a result of this phenomenon, including “sponsored posts.” Despite their importance, the authors feel that not enough attention has been paid by academics to the development of marketing in the blogosphere. The chapter also examines the concerns that marketing communications on blogs may be contributing to the shadow economy around the world. The uniqueness of this new form of advertising medium is emphasized, and it is hoped that this chapter will also add to the understanding of why the study of blogs and their commercialization is absolutely essential.

Where and why do you shop? Choice of retailer.

Last evening I was shopping at the Lidl store in Foleshill, Coventry and realised that I had been shopping there quite frequently in the past few months. This made me wonder about the stores I normally shop at and whether I am actually loyal to a store. The answer seems to be a big "No!".

It was quite different a couple of years back - I shopped almost exclusively at Tesco. This was probably due to the fact that there was a Tesco Metro very near to my house and maybe partly due to the fact that I was getting Tesco loyalty card points every time I shopped.

I did shop at Sainsburys and Morrisons sometimes but hardly ever shopped at Asda. This changed when an Asda opened very near to the Tesco Metro near my house. I started shopping there quite often and maybe even more so than at the Tesco. At first this was due to convenience as finding parking near the Tesco store can be quite hard while the Asda store has their own dedicated parking space.

Distance from our house to various stores in the area

Tesco Metro 0.3 miles

Asda 0.3 miles

Aldi 0.8 miles

Lidl 1.7 miles

Tesco Extra 1.8 miles

Morrisons 1.8 miles

Sainsbury 2.4 miles

Sainsburys 3.5 miles

The distance of the store may have something to do with my choice of store but I hardly ever visit the Aldi store which is nearer than Lidl or Tesco Extra. Moreover, I do not think that this was the only reason, as I hardly ever visited the Netto store which was at the same location before Adsa took over. Netto was simply depressing. Choice of products, store layout and overall ambiance of the store does matter.

I think it has got a lot to do with pricing as well - I found out that a lot of the products sold at Asda are cheaper than at Tesco and I am not talking about the store brands but other products they sell. For example, my favourite white bread - Warburtons Medium Sliced White Bread, costs only £1 at Asda while it is £1.45 in Tesco. The staff are really helpful as well.

This brings me to Lidl. I first explored it when it first opened their store in Foleshill and there was nothing special - just felt like another Aldi which has a store in our area which I hardly visit as well. The store layout and aesthetics is nothing to shout about.  However, I noticed that they had a small selection of organic vegetables and fruits. As we consume a lot of organic food this was the initial attraction. I normally buy meat, chicken (Halal) and rice from one of the local stores along Foleshill road (cheaper than in Tesco).  Lidl has also started carrying a number of other products including clothing and  tools among other products. What really surprised me was that the quality of these products (almost all of them are made in Germany) are quite good yet very affordable. It is no wonder that the German stores are really doing well. Read: German Aldi and Lidl crush British 'big four' supermarkets at the checkouts over Christmas.

The big Tesco Extra store at the Arena park has still got the best variety/ range of choices in the whole of Coventry and has probably the best selection of organic food among all the stores. They have undergone a major oerhaul of the entire store layout and I am slowly getting used to it. I realise I still do a major proportion of my monthly shopping  there. However, it is not the only store I go to now and even though loyalty cards and store aesthetics do matter, I realise that convenience and price does play an important role in my shopping habits.

Would love to hear your opinion. What is your favourite store and why do you shop there?

Related Academic Sources:

Tang, C. S., Bell, D. R., & Ho, T. H. (2001). Store choice and shopping behavior: how price format works. California Management Review, 43(2), 56-74.

Fotheringham, A. S. (1988). Note—Consumer Store Choice and Choice Set Definition. Marketing Science, 7(3), 299-310.

Walsh, G., Shiu, E., Hassan, L. M., Michaelidou, N., & Beatty, S. E. (2011). Emotions, store-environmental cues, store-choice criteria, and marketing outcomes. Journal of Business Research, 64(7), 737-744.

Reardon, J., Mikller, C. E., & Coe, B. (2011). Applied scale development: measurement of store image. Journal of Applied Business Research, 11(4), 85-93.

Why you should do a PhD?

I obtained my PhD in Marketing from the Warwick Business School in 2011 and was reflecting back. Though there were times when I nearly gave up and even tears were shed, those 4 years were definitely worth it.

Sharing an interesting infographic "Doctorate Degrees: Are They Worth It?"


Source: Online-PhD-Programs.org

Pillars of morality: Frans de Wall on Moral behaviour in Primates

Really interesting video I recently came across which I simply had to share. Animals do show empathy, cooperation, fairness and reciprocity - pillars of the concept of morality.

Starting salaries of Marketing lecturers at different British Universities

Note: This list has not been updated since 2014 and starting salaries may have changed.

Updated: 4 June 2014 (added Bournemouth University & Keele University)

While glancing at some of the lecturing jobs (in Marketing) coming through my inbox, I was quite surprised at the range of starting salaries at various Universities in the UK. As expected, most of the older and more established, Russell group of Universities, have high starting salaries as compared to most of the younger Universities. However, there were some surprises. The 2nd most highest starting pay is actually offered by the University of East Anglia. So far, the lowest starting pay is offered by the University of Southampton, a Russell Group University.

The starting pay at the University of the West of Scotland, Scotland’s largest modern university, was also much higher than either Coventry University or Swansea University.

If you have a PhD + teaching experience + publications, I would strongly recommend negotiating for a higher pay. DO NOT START AT THE BASE IF POSSIBLE. Nobody told me that I could negotiate my salary when I started and just accepted what was offered to me.

Given below are the starting salaries Lecturers in Marketing of some Universities based on recent ads on Jobs.ac.uk with the highest starting salaries on top alphabetically:

Aston University, Aston Business School
£37,382 - £44,607

University of Bath, School of Management
Lecturer (Assistant Professor): £37,756 -  £45,053

University of Bedfordshire
£31,331 - £37,382

University of Birmingham, College of Social Sciences, Birmingham Business School, Department of Marketing * 
£37,756 - £45,053 (with potential progression to £50,688 a year)

Bournemouth University, Business School, The Department of Strategy and Marketing
£31,644 - £36,661 (with further progression opportunities to £40,046)

University of Brighton, Business School
£32,590 to £38,907

Brunel University - Brunel Business School
£34,223 - £44,607 incl. London Weighting.

Cardiff University - Cardiff Business School *
£30,728 - £36,661 (Grade 6)
£38,907 - £45,053  (Grade 7)  BEST STARTING PAY 1

Coventry University, Coventry Business School
£30,426 - £37,386  (Grade 7)

University of East Anglia
£38,522 - £44,607 BEST STARTING PAY 2

University of Glasgow - Adam Smith Business School, College of Social Sciences * 
£32,267 - £36,298

Glasgow Caledonian University - Glasgow School for Business & Society, Department of Business Management
£38,522 - £44,607  (Grade 7). BEST STARTING PAY 2

Keele University, Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences, Keele Management School

Grade 7a: £32,590 to £37,756

Lancaster University - Lancaster University Management School, Marketing Department
£32,267 - £44,607

University of Leeds - Leeds University Business School * 
£33,230 - £36,298

University of Leicester, School of Management
Grade 8 – Extended Lecturer Scale- £36,661 to £45,053 per annum

University of Liverpool * 
£31,331 - £36,298

Liverpool Hope University - Liverpool Hope Business School
£30,728 to £36,661  (Grade 7)

The University of Northampton
£31,331 - £44,607

Northumbria University - Faculty of Business and Law Newcastle Business School
 £32,590 - £36,661

University of Nottingham - Nottingham University Business School * 
(For Assistant Professor): £36,298 - £44,607

Nottingham Trent University - College of Business, Law and Social Sciences, Nottingham Business School
£30,728 - £45,053

Oxford Brookes University
£32,267 - £35,244

Queens University Belfast * 
£33,230 - £48,729

University of Reading, Henley Business School
£37,756 to £46,400  (Grade 7)

Regent's University London, Department of Marketing and Strategy
£34,000 - £36,000

University of Salford, Salford Business School
£37,756 - £45,053

University of Strathclyde, Strathclyde Business School
£33,562

Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield Business School, Department of Management
£31,644 to £35,597

University of Southampton, Southampton Management School *   LOWEST STARTING PAY
£27,854 - £57,743

University of Sussex - School of Business, Management and Economics
£33,562 - £45,053

Swansea University - School of Management
£31,331 - £36,298

University of Warwick - Warwick Business School * 
(For Assistant Professor): £37,382 - £44,607

University of the West of England, Bristol
£30,424 - £45,941

University of Wolverhampton - Business School
£32,267 - £45,941

University of York - The York Management School * 
£36,298 - £44,607

* Russell group of Universities


NOTE: I am still building up the list and any input from my readers are welcome.

Past updates:

27 May 2014
9 May 201424 April 2014
6 April 2014 - arranged the Universities alphabetically.
21 March 2014
25 Nov. 2013. I have changed Red Brick to Russell Group of Universities.
7 Nov. 2013: I have added a few more Universities to the list. Thanks to all my friends for their input.

Muruganandam Arunachalam and the Sanitary Pad Revolution.

Inspiring talk by Muruganandam Arunachalam.

Book on marketing cases from emerging markets is out

Finally received hard copies of our case study book today. Even though I have seen the proofs and the digital versions before, I cannot describe the feeling I felt when I held the book with my name on the cover, in my hands. My first book, even though it is as the editor.

It has been more than a year since I first proposed the book in our department meeting and there were times when it looked like the book was never going to be published. However, it has been published and I really have to thank Prashanth Mahagaonkar from Springer for his patience and allowing me to push forward the dateline three times.

This was a joint effort of several academics in the Department of Marketing and Advertising, Coventry Business School along with their collaborators. I would like to thank all the contributors, especially my co-editors, Sanjit Kumar Roy and Eva Kipnis.

Though I said "never again" when I finally sent off the final copy, seeing this book on my desk has changed my mind.

You can get the book from the following sites:

1. Springer: http://www.springer.com/business+%26+management/marketing/book/978-3-642-36860-8 £62.99

2. Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Marketing-Cases-Emerging-Markets-Dilip/dp/3642368603 £67.99

3. Waterstones: http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/products/dilip+s-+mutum/eva+kipnis/sanjit+kumar+roy/marketing+cases+from+emerging+markets/9630214/ £67.99

4. Book Depository: http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Marketing-Cases-from-Emerging-Markets-Dilip-Mutum/9783642368608 £54.56 (the cheapest with free delivery Worldwide).

University Tution Fees [Infographic]

Interesting infographic on University tution fees.


Source: NonProfitCollegesOnline.com

Thanks for the link Heidi.

Relationship between core curriculum and college preparedness [infographic]

An interesting infographic from the Best College Review site which argues that a "Common core curriculum is not the solution to closing the achievement gap".

Some politicians here in the UK believe that the educations standards here have gone down and that we should look at systems followed by other countries.

What do you think?


Source: Best College Reviews

Presentation at the Academy of Marketing Conference 2013

Just got back from Cardiff where I had gone to present a paper at the Academy of Marketing Annual Conference 2013. This year it was hosted by the University of South Wales in Cardiff. The venue of the conference was the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. The weather was really nice - warm and sunny. At first I did not notice anybody familiar but gradually over the day, got to meet some old friends and made some new ones as well.



The key note was delivered by Prof. Kozinets from York University in Canada and one of the leading experts on social media marketing. He is well known for Netnography, the research methodology which he developed. I found his key note address on marketing relevance really interesting and he highlighted the need for us, academics to engage with different audiences besides other academics, via social media and other resources. He also mentioned academics love of using jargon in our writings (which not a lot of people understand) and the need to be accessible. It's hard to change your ways but I sincerely hope that academics who are in love with what they think is "proper academic language", think and reflect on this.

I only attended for a day but there were some really interesting papers in the sessions which I attended. I wish I could have stayed for the whole duration of the conference but had prior engagements.

I was the first presenter in my session: 'Brand, Identity and Corporate Reputation 2', on Tuesday 9 July 2013 from 15.45 - 17.15 in the Rowe-Beddoe Studio. I was a bit nervous but the presentation went better than expected. There was some differences of opinion about the methodology, several questions and suggestions for further improvement.

Here is some information about the paper I presented. Click the title to download the whole paper.

0189: Brand Personality Dimensions and Traits in Malaysia

Mozard Mohtar 1, Azni Zarina Taha 1, Dilip Mutum 2, Ezlika Ghazali 1
1University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 2 Coventry University, Coventry, West Midlands, UK

Abstract:
The purpose of this study is to investigate the dimensions and traits of brand personality scale in Malaysia. We also tested the generalizability of the new Brand Personality scale of Geuens et al., (2009), which consisted of 12-item scale used for cross-cultural studies. Using etic and emic approaches, items generated were cross-referenced with unique items from 10 published scales in top ranking journals. A total of 96 items were available for Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA).Principal Axis Factoring with Oblimin rotation revealed that there 12 factor structures existed in Malaysia. All factors showed strong Cronbach a values and corresponded more to Aaker’s (1997) western Brand Personality scale rather than those of Geuens’ et al. (2009).

NOTE: Noticed that there was a typo on the last line of the 3rd para. It should be "20 minutes" instead of 220 minutes.

If you are working on brand personality, I would love to hear your thoughts on our paper.