Editorial

Citation

Phau, I. (2017), "Editorial", Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, Vol. 29 No. 1, pp. 2-3. https://doi.org/10.1108/APJML-10-2016-0214

In this first issue of 2017, the APJML presents a series of papers covering a myriad of topics, including: consumer behaviour, advertising and brand strategy, green marketing, product design marketing, futurology in marketing, research methods and supply chain optimisation. Our industry spotlight submission for this issue is a paper on product-place co-branding, giving insights on the Sri Lankan tea industry.

Opening this issue, are two papers related to consumer behaviour. First, market segmentation is a crucial component in developing various market strategies, and effective segmentation is often a challenge for marketers and researchers alike. Asserting that a domain-specific, lifestyle-related approach to segmentation tends to be more feasible; Bruwer, Roediger and Herbst tackle the issue of segmenting wine consumers in South Africa. Using the wine-related lifestyle instrument, they identify a number of lifestyle-related wine segments, and make cross-cultural comparisons with prior wine segmentation studies. This study provides greater understanding of wine consumer segments, and validates a potentially useful instrument for more precise segmentation of wine consumers. Next, Assawavichairoj and Taghian conduct a cross-cultural comparison of consumer decision making in the context of anti-ageing products. Applying a qualitative approach, focus group discussions were conducted with Australian and Thai consumers. Through this, they identify specific differences in cultural values between these consumers, that affect their decisions on anti-ageing products. These findings provide a springboard for future research in this area, and provide some insights for the design of anti-ageing products that target specific consumer motivations of each culture.

Moving into the advertising realm, is a paper by Srivastava, Maheswarappa and Sivakumaran on the television advertising industry in India. Through a content analysis of 700 television advertisements, their study investigates the way nostalgia is used as an advertising appeal in India. Their findings shed light on emotional advertising in India, for marketers and researchers, paves the way for future research on advertising appeals in this region.

Green marketing is sometimes perceived in a negative light, but is something that is necessary for businesses to consider in today’s society. Kumar presents a paper that shines a light on the advertising aspect of green marketing. Through a content analysis of over 230 advertisements in India, Kumar identifies four key themes in green advertising intent. These themes, ranging from communication to consumer engagement can help brand managers to better understand the green advertising landscape in India, and provides new research directions for the development of this field. Continuing with the theme of green marketing, Gocer and Sevil Oflac examine young Turkish consumers’ responses to eco-labelled products. Examining some of the perceptual factors that influence eco-product purchase tendency – perceived environmental knowledge and familiarity with eco-labelling, for example they help to ascertain the key motivating factors of eco-product purchase in an emerging market like Turkey. This can help marketing managers and policymakers better communicate the importance and appeal of environmentally friendly products.

In deciding how to best market a product, there is often a tussle between form and function. In this issue, Lee and Johnson present a paper on the influence of design on consumer motivations to purchase products. Surveying South Korean respondents, they examine the effects of technological innovations and consumer innovativeness on the relationship between product design and purchase intentions. Their findings help shed light on the interplay between design and innovation and how varying these aspects of a product influences consumer purchase motivations.

Moving into the topic of brand strategy, Urakami and Wu present a paper that examines the factors that affect “own brand” strategies employed in the Japanese apparel industry. Surveying over 400 apparel manufacturers in Japan, their study provides insight on the prevalence of the speciality store retailer of private brand label apparel (SPA) business model in Japan, and identifies key aspects of apparel firms’ survival strategies.

There seems to be an assumption that perceived social media marketing activities exert an important impact on a brand consciousness. To this end, Ismail supports the idea that perceived social media marketing activities is a key driver of brand loyalty because followers of the brand pages on social media platforms tend to be loyal and committed to the brand. Younger consumers today are more brand conscious and regard social media as a more trustworthy source of information about their brands than traditional instruments of marketing communications. The study also yields a new insight into how perceived social media marketing activities can influence value conscious consumers.

Moving onto a more serious topic on research methods, Kahiya presents an appraisal on the methodological rigour of discriminant analyses conducted in marketing research. Focussing on publications on export marketing, Kahiya conducts a content analysis of over 80 research publications and identifies areas for improvement in the appropriate use, and conduct of discriminant analysis. This has significant relevance to researchers as it highlights the importance of methodological rigour in the research process, and the potential pitfalls that researchers should avoid.

This issue’s papers relating to logistics and supply chain management relate to supply chain optimisation. First, Malakouti, Rezaei and Shahijan present a paper on agile supply chain management (ASCM) in the context of Malaysian small-medium enterprises (SMEs) in the manufacturing-related service sector. Their findings reveal that, in this context, management style is not as crucial to effective ASCM as compared to other factors such as entrepreneurial orientation and technology utilisation. This provides insight on an interesting caveat for the optimisation of supply chain management strategies in this SME context. Next, Su and Liu present a paper assessing how different products produced from the same product platform affect the segmentation and pricing strategies of the products. Through a review of different supply chain conditions, they make an assessment of the key factors that managers should consider when determining the optimal pricing approach for their products.

This issue’s industry spotlight paper is presented by Ranasinghe, Thaichon and Ranasinghe. This paper applies the strategic place brand-management (SPBM) model to examine product-place co-branding in the Sri Lankan tea industry. Using the SPBM as a framework to review the Sri Lankan tea industry, they ascertain key areas of focus for effective product-place co-branding of Sri Lankan tea; and highlight the value in product-place co-branding.

I would like to acknowledge the reviewers and EAB for their timely reviews and contribution the APJML. I also thank the authors for submitting manuscripts of exceptional calibre. I hope this issue marks the start of a good year and wish all our readers a prosperous year ahead.