Part 1: The question of marketspace and marketplace
1. The key drivers of perceived omnichannel service quality
Elena Patten, Macromedia University of Applied Sciences, Germany
The complexity of the customer journey has increased tremendously in the context of e-commerce because customers use various touchpoints at different channels when interacting with a retailer. This book chapter aims to investigate the concept of integration in omnichannel retailing by considering the different elements of the retail mix. Furthermore, it will elaborate the key drivers of perceived omnichannel service quality.
2. Omnichannel and brand equity: a new balance of sustainable competitive advantage Claudio Becagli, University of Florence, Italy
Fashion retailing has recently been characterised by considerable changes. Many of the changes are industry-specific but many others come from the external environment, such as economic and technological development. These forces oblige companies to manage their brand engagement in both physical and online channels with the aim of delivering a seamless shopping experience to their customers while at the same time pursuing satisfactory economic and competitive performances. The brand experience depends not on one or more channels but it results from a holistic approach in which the company must try to simultaneously combine and align all brand-customer touchpoints.
3. Opinion leaders, short videos and virtual community construction
Peng Chen, School of Economics and Management of Jiujiang University, China
Research on opinion leaders can be traced back to Lazarsfeld's work in 1944. Earlier research focused on the characteristics, identity and influence of opinion leaders. In the past 20 years, with the development of internet technology, the application of opinion leaders in marketing, public affairs, medical treatment, management, tourism, fashion and other fields has attracted the interest of a large number of scholars. Short videos, as a form of social media, have become a new growth point of network marketing in recent years. As modern internet opinion leaders, internet celebrities are active in various virtual communities and attract the attention of internet users. They have a significant influence on the marketing campaigns of the fashion industry. Based on the theories of consumer behaviour, this chapter will study the ways and methods of internet celebrities in the fashion industry to build virtual communities through short videos, and it will ask: How can fashion brands connect with consumers through the virtual community built by internet celebrities?
4. Characteristics and temperament of fashion bloggers
Deidre Bowen, Northumbria University, UK
This chapter will discuss the general characteristics of bloggers and how they differ from the characteristics of bloggers on fashion goods. Bloggers on technology will have specific knowledge or expertise on the products. What types of knowledge do fashion bloggers have or require? Is fashion blogging predominantly about emotional intelligence and hence linked to the temperament of the blogger?
Part 2: Online Brand Communities and Customer Relationship
5. Customer participation versus consumer loyalty in online brand communities
Wilson Ozuem, Michelle Willis, Silvia Rafangni
University of Cumbria (UK) and University of Florence (Italy)
Online brand communities (OBCs) have maintained the close link between
About the Author:
Wilson Ozuem teaches and supervises research projects in a number of UK universities, including City, University of London, Warwick University, University of Birmingham and the University of Cumbria. His general area of expertise lies in digital marketing and fashion marketing. His specific research interest is understanding the impacts of emerging computer-mediated marketing environments (CMMEs) on the fashion industry. Professor Ozuem is acknowledged as one of the international leaders in the study of digital marketing and multichannel retailing. His research has been published in key journals, including the European Journal of Marketing, Journal of Business Research, Information Technology & People, Psychology & Marketing, and many others.
Silvia Ranfagni is Associate Professor of Marketing at the Department of Economics and Management at the University of Florence, Italy. Her research interests include innovation, internationalization, and brand management with special reference to the fashion and cultural industry. She has participated in international marketing conferences, and has published in national and international journals such as Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, Management Decision, European Journal of Marketing, Journal of Consumer Behaviour, Journal of Business Research, and Journal of Interactive Marketing
