Dominic Appiah

Royal Holloway, University of London | RHUL · Department of Marketing

Special Issue, Volume 9, Interdisciplinary Journal of Economics and Business Law (IJEBL), Editor, Professor Ruth Taplin Special Issue IJEBL Guest Editors: Wilson Ozuem, University of Cumbria Email:wilson.ozuem@cumbria.ac.uk Gordon Bowen, University of Northumbria Email:gordon.bowen@northumbria.ac.uk Background and Context The Internet and emerging technologies have moved to the core of marketing practices (Ozuem, Howell and Lancaster, 2008). Digital technologies facilitate digital marketing environments, thereby widening the scope and for marketers to interact with their customers. The growth of digital technology is fuelling an unprecedented explosion of marketing innovations, particularly in facilitating communications between the marketers and their customers. As Feenberg (2009) noted, the larger technological infrastructure on which social media platforms are built is still volatile, and few, if any, platforms have yet attained a stabilised meaning or standardised use within the context of this unstable ecosystem. Additionally, the recent wave of online communication platforms has increased the challenges faced by marketers in developing and retaining their customers. Undoubtedly, social media has redefined the way marketers communicate with their customers – shifting the balance in favour of customers. Drawing on social identity theory, Mousavi, Roper and Keeling (2017) noted that computermediated marketing environments are increasingly becoming effective channels in which customers see the external image of a brand as distinctive and prestigious. This special IJEBL edition focuses on qualitative discussions on issues related to digital marketing in Luxury fashion brands. It addresses the relationship between computer-mediated marketing environments and luxury fashion brands. The adverts of Internet technologies along with its prototypical subsets are turning consumers to the digital universe (Azemi, Ozuem, Howell and Lancaster, 2018). Academics and practitioners alike are increasingly questioning how fashion brands, particularly the luxury fashion brands, could compete in the evolving digital tapestry which is especially characterized by its mass market and lower prices. The complexity remains with how to use effective marketing programmes to overcome the existing challenges in the digital universe, including customers’ enhanced power, greater risk of service failures, and intensified exposure to negative word-of-mouth. The underlining debate derived from such brands is that luxury brands are identified with customer experience more than the product itself, and that computer-mediated marketing environments (CMMEs) lead to a vague provision of such an experience. This suggests that if unfavourable online marketing strategies are pursued, the online environment may do more harm than good for the luxury company. This special issue rejects this potential outcome and argues that the real issue is not the evolving Internet environments per se but the variety of possible technologies and paths which companies and brand managers choose to use. Some potential research topics are shown below, although interested contributors are not limited to these examples. Submissions are welcome from both empirically based and conceptually written papers 1) Online brand communities (OBC) 2) Consumer engagement management (CEM) 3) Branding co-creation 4) Online service failure and recovery strategies 5) Viral Marketing 6) Customer brand relationship 7) Information exchange 8) Omnichannel retailing 9) Social media strategy Authors should submit abstracts of 300 words to the IJEBL guest editors by 30 April, 2019 for a preliminary assessment and selection. Submission of papers will be done through the IJEBL online submission system (after the abstract is accepted) before 31 August 2019. Authors should follow the Instructions for Authors found on the IJEBL website www.ijebl.co.uk. The submission of final revised papers is due by 30 October 2019; publication of the special issue is planned for May 2020. Submission Dates Submission of abstracts: 30 April 2019 Submission of full papers: 30 August 2019 Submission of revised papers: 30 October 2019 Publication: May 2020

Call for Book Chapters Book title: Harnessing Omni-Channel Marketing Strategies for Fashion and Luxury brands Editors: Wilson Ozuem, Elena Patten and Yllka Azemi Introduction: Technological advancements have led to changes in customer expectations and methods by which businesses interact with consumers. The Internet exposed customers’ diverse evaluations and expectations, detaching companies’ market approaches from a single marketing channel. This no longer assures companies a disseminated online presence, isolating their exposure to a partial customer target. Competition in the online environment presents a higher risk to companies in general, and to those with business strategies that contradict mass customization in particular (Ozuem et al, 2008; Azemi et al 2018). Fashion and luxury brands remain less resistant to such a danger, aiming for a full utilization of marketing channels. Their business strategy of a niche nature calls for marketing strategies that assure zero customer loss. There is widespread agreement in academic literature that multichannel retailing encompasses the concept of integrating the different channels operating within one organization. However, the complexity of the multichannel retailing strategies that have evolved has led to a degree of confusion with regard to a coherent terminology contingent on the development of effective marketing strategies. Researchers and practitioners have primarily used the terms ‘multichannel’, ‘cross-channel’, and ‘omni-channel’ retailing to conceptualize the process of retailing that operates across more than one retail channel (Patten & Ozuem, 2017; Beck & Rygl, 2015). For example, Beck and Rygl (2015) conducted some initial research and categorized these three different terms according to the degree of customer interaction options and the degree of company integration they facilitate. Thus, cross-channel retailing can be considered an advanced stage of multichannel retailing with a higher degree of customer interaction and/or company integration. Omni-channel retailing can be considered the ultimate stage of multichannel retailing, achieving full customer interaction and/or full company integration. The complexity of conceptualization informs companies’ usage of the omni-channel marketing, leaving them with implicit marketing plans. This calls for further scholar and practitioner contribution to harness omni-channel marketing that would foreground the ‘rule of thumbs’ in strategies that lead to mutual company-provider satisfaction. Objectives, Impact, and Value: This book aims to provide conceptualization of omni-channel marketing, providing clarity in descriptive aspects of multifarious strategies. The insight addresses the complexity on a fundamental literature basis of differentiating omni-channel marketing from multi-channel and cross-channel strategies. The book further seeks to reveal insight into the applicability of omnichannel recovery strategies, reflecting explicit plans that fashion and luxury products should use to optimize the online environment. The differences between online and offline channels will be discussed, to draw a rule of thumbs on the two. Finally, social media as an imperative part of the omni-channel will be elaborated upon, and recommendations for its forms of successful usage will be provided. The book will enhance theoretical insight in services marketing, contextualizing extant inquiry into omni-channel marketing strategies for fashion and luxury brands. The knowledge developed will increase the theoretical scope of the subject, incorporating ideas that would open a new field for future research. The contextual models recommended would support fashion and luxury providers in developing strategies that optimize the usage of omni-channel marketing. They would enhance fashion and luxury brands decision-making in omni-channel marketing explicit to brand development and customer management. This book will also conceptualize the relationship between the theory and practice of omni-channel marketing strategies in fashion and luxury brands, providing a guideline to marketing and fashion students to enhance their understanding, and aiding fashion and luxury omni-channel marketing consultants to make their cases successful. Synopsis: Related literature has explored channel integration in the context of the different elements of the retail mix (Verhoef et al., 2015). Emrich et al. (2015) investigated the implications of assortment integration by multichannel retailers. The researchers investigated three different assortment structures: substitutive, complementary, and independent assortments. They disclosed that customer perceptions of the degree of assortment integration differ across various assortment structures. Moreover, they argued that the relationship between multichannel assortment integration and patronage intentions depends on certain perceived shopping benefits, which include assortment variety, convenience and reduced risk. Technologically induced marketing environments offer a higher order of shopping, which offers streams of competing and highly differentiated brands. This environment allows dyadic modes of communication and association with customers, and consumers are able to justify their feelings about brands online through ‘Word of Mouse’. The proposed book aims to explore and advance insights into the modalities and integrations of emerging technologies in the development of marketing strategies for fashion and luxury brands. Tentative Table of Contents/Topic Coverage 1. Fashion and Luxury Brands Marketing 2. Conceptualization of Omni-channel Marketing Strategies 3. Reconstructing Omni-channel Marketing Strategies in Fashion and Luxury Brands 4. Customers behaviour and omni-channel marketing strategies 5. Customers’ interpretation of omni-channel marketing strategies 6. Omni-channel as means of company-provider communication 7. Service failure in omni-channel marketing practices 8. Performance of recovery strategies through omni-channel marketing strategies 9. Influencing customers through omni-channel marketing strategies 10. Social media: An integrative part of omni-channel marketing 11. Employees’ engagement in online omni-channel practices 12. Social media and employers: a dyadic omni-channel practice 13. Integrating offline and online environments into omni-channel practices 14. Omni-channel marketing strategies and mass customized industries 15. Omni-channel marketing strategy plans for fashion and luxury brands 16. Viral marketing and Shareable Marketing Strategies Target Audience and Potential Uses Professors of Fashion Schools Graduate, and Postgraduate business and fashion students and Post Graduate researchers Fashion Marketers Marketers of luxury brands Gurus of Fashion and Luxury Brands Marketing consultants Fashion and luxury consultants Industry policy makers Potential contributors should send one page proposal or abstract to Prof Wilson Ozuem: will.oz@talk21.com Publisher's details: BrownWalker Press (USA) Proposal submission: deadline: 20 October 2018 Notifications and Proposal approval: 30 October 2018 Chapter submission: 30 January 2019 Final Submission and Acceptance: 28 February 2019 Inquiries Inquiries can be forwarded to: Professor Wilson Ozuem University of Gloucestershire (UK) e-mail address: will.oz@talk21.com Dr Elena Patten Corvinus University of Budapest (Hungary) e-mail address: elena.patten@gmx.net Dr Yllka Azemi Indiana University Northwest (USA) e-mail address: yazemi@iu.edu