Notes on articles Marketing Management
- Venetis (2017)
Proposes a conceptual shift from dyadic (firm–customer) thinking to a network-based view of
marketing, especially for customer experience management. Helps managers understand why
traditional market orientation is no longer enough and why customer experience must be managed
across partners and platforms.
The positioning builds on classic marketing concept and Extends them by arguing that value is now
created in networks, not isolated firm–customer relationships. There is no hypothesis, but their core
claim is that superior customer value today requires a network perspective and holistic customer
experience management. They test this by a theoretical review of literature and industry examples.
Integrates prior research rather than empirical testing.
Marketing has not changed in its core goal (customer value), but the unit of analysis has changed:
from firms and customers to interconnected networks shaping the customer journey. Manage
customer experience across the whole journey, not just touchpoints they control. Collaborate with
partners, platforms, and even competitors. Use data + insights to design networked experiences, not
isolated campaigns. Align the entire organization (and partners) around shared customer value
creation.
- De Swaan (2022)
The purpose of the article was to understand how marketing organizations must change to succeed in
the digital age. The authors wanted to identify what distinguishes high-performing marketing
organizations from weaker ones, especially regarding strategy, structure, and capabilities.
What strategies, structures, and capabilities should marketing organizations adopt to perform
successfully in a rapidly changing, digital marketing environment? They answered this by surveys and
comparisons.
The research found that high-performing marketing organizations share several key characteristics:
, 1. Use of big data and deep customer insights. They combine large data sets with understanding
of customer motivations.
2. Strong brand purpose. Successful brands communicate clear functional, emotional, and
societal value.
3. Focus on total customer experience. Companies create consistent experiences across many
touchpoints.
4. Strong cross-functional collaboration. Marketing works closely with other departments and
helps shape company strategy.
5. Agile and flexible organizational structures. Teams are often temporary and cross-functional
instead of rigid hierarchies.
6. Continuous capability building and training. High-performing organizations invest heavily in
developing marketing skills.
Marketing has changed due to digital technologies and data. Many companies still use outdated
marketing structures. Modern strategies needs to be developed. Success requires data, purpose,
collaboration, agility and continuous learning.
- Woodruff (1997)
How should organizations manage and organize themselves to compete effectively on superior
customer value delivery?
It’s all about customer-focused competitive advantage. The purpose was to explain how organizations
can gain competitive advantage by focusing on superior customer value delivery, and to provide
frameworks and tools for understanding, learning about, and managing customer value in practice.
They defined customer value from the customers’ perspective and proposed the Customer Value
Hierarchy. Introducing processes for customer value learning (CVD) and translation into internal
processes, and arguing for customer value–oriented information systems (CVOMIS).
Customer value is not just product attributes, but also use consequences and customer goals.
Organizations usually learn too narrowly (only about attributes). Competitive advantage comes from
learning deeply about customer value and translating it into internal processes. Firms should shift
from simple satisfaction measurement to a broader Customer Value Determination (CVD) approach.
Long-term success depends on understanding what customers truly value in use, not just what they
say at purchase. Firms that master customer value learning and translation can build stronger
customer relationships, loyalty, and sustainable competitive advantage.
Customer service management (CSM) is becoming more important because of the more demanding
customers, global competition and slow-growth industries. In the past, it has failed because
companies didn’t measured customer satisfaction or didn’t act on the results. Also, result doesn’t
always align with the organizational performance. Learning and analyzing about customer behavior
is crucial. Success examples are: Federal Express, AT&T. There are different classification of types of
customer value: functional, social, emotional, epistemic and conditional value. You can also classify in
use: product value, value in use, possession value and overall value. The Customer Value Hierarchy
(CVH) is a useful framework for understanding how customers think about the value of products and
use in situations. Also, customer-learning processes should bridge the gap of what is thought to be
valued and what is actually valued (trial-and-error experiences, feedback, surveys, qualitative
research). We use customer satisfaction measures (CSM) to understand customer value.
- Venetis (2017)
Proposes a conceptual shift from dyadic (firm–customer) thinking to a network-based view of
marketing, especially for customer experience management. Helps managers understand why
traditional market orientation is no longer enough and why customer experience must be managed
across partners and platforms.
The positioning builds on classic marketing concept and Extends them by arguing that value is now
created in networks, not isolated firm–customer relationships. There is no hypothesis, but their core
claim is that superior customer value today requires a network perspective and holistic customer
experience management. They test this by a theoretical review of literature and industry examples.
Integrates prior research rather than empirical testing.
Marketing has not changed in its core goal (customer value), but the unit of analysis has changed:
from firms and customers to interconnected networks shaping the customer journey. Manage
customer experience across the whole journey, not just touchpoints they control. Collaborate with
partners, platforms, and even competitors. Use data + insights to design networked experiences, not
isolated campaigns. Align the entire organization (and partners) around shared customer value
creation.
- De Swaan (2022)
The purpose of the article was to understand how marketing organizations must change to succeed in
the digital age. The authors wanted to identify what distinguishes high-performing marketing
organizations from weaker ones, especially regarding strategy, structure, and capabilities.
What strategies, structures, and capabilities should marketing organizations adopt to perform
successfully in a rapidly changing, digital marketing environment? They answered this by surveys and
comparisons.
The research found that high-performing marketing organizations share several key characteristics:
, 1. Use of big data and deep customer insights. They combine large data sets with understanding
of customer motivations.
2. Strong brand purpose. Successful brands communicate clear functional, emotional, and
societal value.
3. Focus on total customer experience. Companies create consistent experiences across many
touchpoints.
4. Strong cross-functional collaboration. Marketing works closely with other departments and
helps shape company strategy.
5. Agile and flexible organizational structures. Teams are often temporary and cross-functional
instead of rigid hierarchies.
6. Continuous capability building and training. High-performing organizations invest heavily in
developing marketing skills.
Marketing has changed due to digital technologies and data. Many companies still use outdated
marketing structures. Modern strategies needs to be developed. Success requires data, purpose,
collaboration, agility and continuous learning.
- Woodruff (1997)
How should organizations manage and organize themselves to compete effectively on superior
customer value delivery?
It’s all about customer-focused competitive advantage. The purpose was to explain how organizations
can gain competitive advantage by focusing on superior customer value delivery, and to provide
frameworks and tools for understanding, learning about, and managing customer value in practice.
They defined customer value from the customers’ perspective and proposed the Customer Value
Hierarchy. Introducing processes for customer value learning (CVD) and translation into internal
processes, and arguing for customer value–oriented information systems (CVOMIS).
Customer value is not just product attributes, but also use consequences and customer goals.
Organizations usually learn too narrowly (only about attributes). Competitive advantage comes from
learning deeply about customer value and translating it into internal processes. Firms should shift
from simple satisfaction measurement to a broader Customer Value Determination (CVD) approach.
Long-term success depends on understanding what customers truly value in use, not just what they
say at purchase. Firms that master customer value learning and translation can build stronger
customer relationships, loyalty, and sustainable competitive advantage.
Customer service management (CSM) is becoming more important because of the more demanding
customers, global competition and slow-growth industries. In the past, it has failed because
companies didn’t measured customer satisfaction or didn’t act on the results. Also, result doesn’t
always align with the organizational performance. Learning and analyzing about customer behavior
is crucial. Success examples are: Federal Express, AT&T. There are different classification of types of
customer value: functional, social, emotional, epistemic and conditional value. You can also classify in
use: product value, value in use, possession value and overall value. The Customer Value Hierarchy
(CVH) is a useful framework for understanding how customers think about the value of products and
use in situations. Also, customer-learning processes should bridge the gap of what is thought to be
valued and what is actually valued (trial-and-error experiences, feedback, surveys, qualitative
research). We use customer satisfaction measures (CSM) to understand customer value.
