1. Many past research have supported the link between customer commitment and a firms profitability.

Your firm wants to know how to increase your customers commitment and loyalty to your products. Discuss the different types of commitment in marketing, and how commitment may be measured. You must cite a minimum of five JOURNAL references to support your discussion. (Hint: Use GECKO to find these journal references, and remember to use Chicago referencing technique.)

In

relationship

marketing

literature,

commitment

has

widely

been

acknowledged to be an integral part of any long-term business relationship and it is described as a kind of lasting intention to build and maintain a long-term relationship (Anderson and Weitz 1992, 19). Customer's commitment is an attitude that reflects the desire to maintain a valued relationship (Bansal, Irving and Taylor 2004, 235). Developing a customer commitment in business relationships does pay off in increased profits and customer retention (Allen and Meyer 1990, 2). Myer and Allen (1990) conceptualized commitment as a three component concept: Affective commitment which reflects an individuals desire to remain in a relationship and it is developed through the degree of reciprocity or personal involvement that a customer has with a company, which results in a higher level of trust and commitment (Garbarino and Johnson 1999, 74); Normative commitment, which reflects a feeling of obligation to a relationship; and Continuance commitment, which reflects a consumers perception of the sacrifice associated with terminating the relationship with a service organization. These three dimensions of commitment are loosely known as want to stay, should stay, and have to stay or as the emotional, moral, and rational forms of commitment (Bansal, Irving and Taylor 2004, 5).

First of all, affective commitment is defined as the degree to which a customer is psychologically bonded to the organization or service providers on the basic of how favourable the consumer feels about the organization (Fones et al. 2010, 18). For example, when consumers come to like or love particular brand or service provider, they are experiencing the psychological state of affective commitment (Fullerton 2003, 334). Affective commitment is frequently appeared in a number of

different contexts such as channels, sales and services, and as a driver of a number of different focal customer responses including repurchase intentions, switching intentions and relative attitude. In addition, it is also a strong predictor of a variety of more discretionary customer responses such as advocacy, co-production, willingness to pay more and number of products or services purchased (Fones et al. 2010, 18). Therefore, it can be seen that affective commitment is a powerful predictor of a variety of both focal and discretionary customer responses.

Secondly, normative commitment is defined as the degree to which a customer is psychologically bonded to the organization on the basis of his or her sense of obligation to the organization. The felt obligation is typically developed from a social pressure to perform in a certain manner or conform to certain standards of behaviour. A base of normative commitment is the social norms of reciprocity which are found in many committed relationships such as friendships, communities, marriage and other partnerships. Therefore, it is believed that higher levels of normative commitment would result in higher levels of customer responses that are more reciprocal in nature (Fones et al. 2010, 18).

Thirdly, continuance commitment is defined as the degree to which a customer is psychologically bonded to the organization on the basis of the perceived costs associated with terminating the relationship. These perceived costs reflect a lack of available alternatives in which customers have considered the relative benefits of remaining with their current service providers and have determined that the costs of finding a suitable alternative outweigh any potential gains. It reflects that customers who feel they have no alternatives will elect to pay more to remain with the service provider and will dedicate all of his/her purchases to this provider. Switching costs, dependence, and lack of choice are at the core of the continuance commitment construct in marketing relationships (Fullerton 2003, 335). Therefore, it is believed that higher levels of continuance commitment will result in higher levels of more calculative forms of loyalty (eg. willingness to pay more, fidelity) (Fones et al. 2010, 18).

This three-component model of customer commitment to service providers implies that there are different tactics that service firms may use to develop commitment among their customers. It is important for service providers to recognize that consumers stay for different reasons: because they want to, because they feel they ought to, and because they feel they have to. That these three bases of commitment develop in different ways suggests that service providers can develop tactics based on any one of these three commitment components (Bansal, Irving and Taylor 2004, 247)

Service providers may build customer affective commitment through responsive communications with customers reliability and responsiveness of service performance and trust. It is likely that simple service quality will have a significant effect on the development of affective commitment to the service provider (Fullerton 2003, 342).

To build continuance commitment, service managers need to focus on establishing that their service company has few suitable alternatives to which customers can switch. To do this, service managers could rely on comparative positioning (i.e. positioning their service company as better than its competitors on salient attributes or benefits). Alternatively, service managers could focus on making it more difficult for its key customers to switch. Continuance commitment can be implemented formally (e.g. via termination fees) or informally (e.g. via consistency over time with high uncertainty avoidance consumers). Indeed, customer loyalty programs such as frequent user cards and the like may also serve to build continuance commitment since customers may feel that it would be difficult to abandon such programs. Other tactics may also entice customers to be committed to the service firm. Some chiropractors have implemented annual fees rather than payper-visit fees as it accomplishes a number of objectives for the chiropractic firm (e.g. stable cash flow, consistent appointments), while fostering commitment in its clients. Because the clients have invested in the service (a base of continuance commitment) they should be more likely to return (a focal response) and engage in other discretionary responses (e.g. tell others, participate in their own care) (Fones et al. 2010, 23).

To build normative commitment, service managers need to focus on aspects of the customer-company relationship that make the customer feel like it should remain in the relationship. Because normative commitment builds from social norms, service managers could adopt key customers i.e. those with many customer contacts through special deals or use testimonials from these key customers in their marketing communications. Doing so may entice other customers to remain with the organization. Alternatively, service firms may build normative commitment by encouraging social behaviors though campaigns like shop locally or through corporate social responsibility efforts (e.g. sports sponsorships or environmental initiatives) that play upon the reciprocity base of normative commitment. Service firms could also use tactics that enhance the social visibility of using a certain service provider (Fones et al. 2010, 23)

When understanding marketing relationships, it should be recognized that relationships might be built on both affective commitment and continuance commitment. It is suggested that understanding of the effects of affective commitment in a relationship must be viewed in light of the degree to which normative and continuance commitment are also present in the relationship. Failure to consider the existence of these three types of commitment in consumerorganization relationship will fail to completely understand why, in some situations, consumers maintain and value a relationship, but in others, they are only weakly attached to the relationship and leave given an opportunity.

Word Count - 1198

References
Allen, N. J., and J. P. Meyer. 1990. The Measurement and Antecedents of Affective, Continuance, and Normative Commitment to the Organization. Journal of Occupational Psychology, 63(1): 1-18.

Anderson, E. W., and B. Weitz. 1992. The Use of Pledges to Build and Sustain Commitment in Distribution Channels. Journal of Marketing Research, 29(2): 18-34.

Bansal, H. S., P. G. Irving, and S. F. Taylor. 2004. A three component model of customer commitment to service providers, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 32(3): 234-50.

Fones, T., G. L. Fox, S. F. Taylor, and L. R. Fabrigar. 2010. Service customer commitment and response, Journal of Services Marketing, 24(1): 1628.

Fullerton, G. 2003. When does customer commitment lead to loyalty? Journal of Service Research, 5(4): 333-344 .

Garbarino, E., and M. S. Johnson. 1999. The Different Roles of Satisfaction, Trust, and Commitment in Customer Relationships. Journal of Marketing, 63 (2): 7087.

Gustafsson, A., M. D. Johnson, and I. Roos. 2005. The Effect of customer satisfaction and relationship commitment dimensions. Journal of Marketing, 69(10): 210-218.

2. A marketing professor claimed: Customer satisfaction isnt good enough anymore... we need to account for the customers emotions how they feel about us deep inside their hearts. Discuss the role of emotions in marketing and give some practical suggestions on how emotions can help sell a product of your choice. You must cite a minimum of five JOURNAL references to support your discussion. (Hint: Use GECKO to search for articles authored by a researcher by the name of Prashanth Nyer, and use this as a starting point to search for other references, and remember to use Chicago referencing technique.)

Early research viewed customer satisfaction as a key outcome of product/service purchase, whereby a comparison is made between expectations of performance and actual performance and satisfaction arise when actual performance is greater than or equal to expected performance (Oliver 1993, 419) Emotion means a mental state of readiness that arises from cognitive appraisals of events or thoughts, and it is accompanied by physiological processes (Bagozzi, Gopinath and Nyer 1999, 184). The measurement of emotions focus on a full set of signs or evidence, including evaluative appraisals, subjective feelings, body posture and gestures, facial expressions, physiological responses, action tendencies, and overt actions (Bagozzi, Gopinath and Nyer 1999, 188). Emotions have been established as a legitimate area of scientific inquiry in marketing with past efforts relying heavily on reference disciplines without adding characteristics of emotions particular to marketing in order to facilitate theoretical communications for the enrichment of marketing accounts of emotions. Emotions can be categorized into positive emotions (happiness, elation, joy) which are associated with the attainment of a goal and usually leads to a decision to continue
with the plan, and negative emotions (frustrations, disappointment, anxiety) which

result from problems with ongoing plans and failures to achieve desired goals (Bagozzi, Gopinath and Nyer 1999, 186). Research shows that both positive and negative emotions are primarily a function of product performance and influence satisfaction (even when the effects of expectations, performance, and

disconfirmation are controlled (Phillips and Baumgartner 2002, 243).

Oliver (1993) stated that satisfaction is more of a cognitive process and it shares much common variance with positive emotions as happiness, joy, gladness, elation, delight and enjoyment. Emotions may not only come into play during actual consumption but also prior to consumption, when consumers form expectations and, after consumption, when they compare experienced emotions with anticipated emotions and evaluate their satisfaction (Westbrook and Oliver 1991, 86). The centrality of satisfaction in marketing studies is perhaps more due to being the first emotion to receive scrutiny in post-purchase behavior research than to constituting a unique, fundamental construct itself. Positive and negative emotions can be referred to as important outcomes of purchase depending on the situation, product and person. Under certain conditions, frustration, anger, disappointment, alienation, disgust, anxiety, guilt, shame, joy, happiness, hope, pride, excitement, relief, amusement, and pleasure among many other positive and negative emotions, might be more valid reactions consumers have to purchases. As highlighted above, the implications of emotional behaviors, word-of-mouth communication, repurchase, and related actions may differ for various positive and negative emotions and be more relevance than reactions to satisfaction or dissatisfaction (Bagozzi, Gopinath and Nyer 1999, 201). Research that addresses appraisal theories, defined as the critical determinant of any emotion is the resultant evaluation and interpretation that arise after comparing an actual state with a desired state, and their role in postconsumption responses as repurchase intentions, word-of-mouth intentions, and other reactions are predicted best by using measures of satisfaction plus measures of emotions (Bagozzi, Gopinath and Nyer 1999, 189) Range of Emotions The range of emotions that can be described as a result of marketing depends on whether emotions are treated as the properties of consumers or as marketing contexts. Developing marketing accounts for emotions from the stimulus side (measuring context-specific consumption emotions or ad copy testing) tended to demonstrate a wide range of emotions being experienced. Alternatively, developing such accounts from the response-side (measuring consumption satisfaction or

emotional responses to ads) tended to identify only a few emotional dimensions as being sufficient (Huang 2001, 242)

Intensity of Emotions Marketing emotions, such as shopping for shoes or vicarious emotions experienced from ad exposure, are likely to be of lower intensity than emotions that arise in the context of interpersonal relationships. Thus, advertising emotions tended to use the term feelings instead of emotions to convey the nature of their relatively low intensity. In describing marketing emotions, boundaries separating feelings, moods, and emotions are usually eliminated. Their mind intensity reflects the fact that emotions in marketing are rarely seen in their pure form (Huang 2001, 243)

There are four basic emotions that motivate consumers to purchase: greed, vanity, exclusivity, and fear. These emotions apply to direct marketing mediums such as search engine marketing or mail order rather than mass medium branding campaigns such as sex. It is suggested to undertake research via internet medium to increase the click-through rate and conversion rate by using one or more of the above emotions (Bagozzi, Gopinath and Nyer 1999, 191). For example, taking a daily consumer product such as Moms Special Pumpkin Pie recipe, and apply the four basic emotions in this product which is shown as below. Greed Pumpkin Pie Recipes on Sale. Award-winning pumpkin pie book. 75% off retail today only! Vanity Make Your Neighbors Jealous Secret pumpkin pie recipe will cause envy on your block! Exclusivity Limited-Edition Pumpkin Pie Recipe Only 1000 copies remain! Order now before supplies run out.

Fear Dont Risk Ruining Thanksgiving Make sure your perfect dinner ends with the perfect pumpkin pie!

Appealing to emotions can be a very successful tool for these reasons: Emotional advertising can turn decent products into needed items. It can cut through the logic. Emotional ads can still appeal to logic. Emotional campaigns can develop a sense of loyalty or good will

By understanding the fact that if the marketing efforts are not reaching people on an emotional level, which may lead advertising campaigns fall short of the desired goal, advertising campaigns try to reach people on a different level or multiple levels of emotions when they advertise or promote the products or services. In fact, for some of the biggest companies, reaching out this level effectively is one of the closestguarded marketing secrets (Why appealing to emotion can sell 2008). Overall, emotions are ubiquitous throughout marketing. They influence information processing, mediate responses to persuasive appeals, measure the effects of marketing stimuli, initiate goal setting, enact goal-directed behaviors and serve as ends and measures of consumer welfare.

Word Count - 996

Reference
Bagozzi, R. P., M. Gopinath, and P. U. Nyer. 1999. The role of emotions in marketing. Academy of Marketing Science, 27(2): 184-206. Huang, M. H. 2001. Theory of Emotions in Marketing. Journal of Business and Psychology,16(2): 239-247.

Oliver, R. L. 1993. Cognitive, affective, and attribute bases of the satisfaction response. Journal of Consumer Research, 20(2): 418- 430.

Phillips, D. M., and H. Baumgartner. 2002. The Role of Consumption Emotions in the Satisfaction Response. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 12(3): 243-252.

Westbrook, R. A., and R. L. Oliver. 1991. The dimensionality of consumption emotion patterns and consumer satisfaction. Journal of Consumer Research, 18(2): 84-91.

Why

appealing

to

emotion

can

sell.

2008.

My

Other

Income

Source.

http://myotherincomesource.com/articles/marketing/why-appealing-to-emotionscan-sell/ (accessed December 13, 2011)