In the current market, the focus is more and more on building long-term relationships with clients in which value is created, communicated and delivered. This also means developing a new customer relationship focus that goes beyond the consumer orientation that has thus far dominated the practice of marketing. In a user-driven approach, the basis is no longer the product range, the world of the manufacturer or supplier, but rather the experience of the user. This has implications not only for manufacturers and service providers, but also for marketeers and market researchers. We feel that the most commonly used methods and techniques do not answer to the new demands of the market. We have therefore adapted emerging generative user research methods from the field of design as a basis for a truly user-driven market approach. As part of the Fitness in Motion project -a programme aimed at helping the health club industry develop a stronger customer orientation- we applied Contextmapping, a generative technique that has already proved its worth in the world of industrial product development and interaction design.
Dutch National Sports Organizations (NSFs) is currently experiencing financial pressures. Two indications for this are described in this paper i.e. increased competition in the sports sector and changes in subsidy division. Decreasing incomes from subsidies can be compensated with either increasing incomes from a commercial domain or increasing incomes from member contributions. This latter solution is gaining interest as a solution for the uncertainties. Many NSFs have therefore participated in a special marketing program in order to enlarge their marketing awareness and create a marketing strategy, in order to (re)win market share on the sports participation market and gain a more stable financial situation. This paper introduces my research related to the introduction of marketing techniques within NSFs and the change-over to become market oriented. An overview of existing literature about creating marketing strategies, their implementation, and market orientation is given. This outline makes obvious that the existing literature is not sufficient for studying the implementation of marketing techniques and market orientation within NSFs. Therefore, it shows the scientific relevance of my research. The paper concludes with the chosen research methodology.
In this article, the impact of strategic orientations on the use of digital marketing tactics and, subsequently, on the international business performance of small electronic retailers (e-retailers) in cross-border electronic commerce (e-commerce) is analysed. Furthermore, these relationships are compared between e-retailers originating in both developed and emerging e-commerce markets. Using a sample of 446 small business-to-consumer e-retailers from 20 European countries, we find that the deployment of digital marketing tactics has a positive effect on international business performance. Of the strategic orientations examined, foreign market orientation is most associated with the use of digital marketing tactics. Remarkably, growth orientation only has a positive effect on e-retailers from developed e-commerce markets, while customer orientation negatively affects e-retailers from emerging e-commerce markets. The differences between e-retailers from developed and emerging e-commerce markets are prominent and show that markets should not be considered as either uniform or generalisable.
