Organisational purchasing of service design – Agency and client perspectives

There has been an increase in the interest in service design, as companies have become more customer-centric and their focus has shifted to customer experiences. The actual organisational purchasing of service design has been given little attention, until recent years. The purpose of this study is to explore the purchasing of service design from the perspectives of sellers (service design agencies) and buying clients (business organisations). In order to understand the phenomenon, also agencies and clients’ approaches to service design discipline, purchasing processes, challenges related to purchasing and ways of facilitating the purchasing are explored. The research follows qualitative research method and utilises abductive reasoning. A proposition framework was formed by combining services marketing, design and organisational buying behaviour literatures, and was tested against real-life business cases. Empirical data was gathered by interviewing eight service design agency representatives and five client representatives in Finland. The results of semi-structural interviews were analysed by finding repetitive themes. The proposition framework was updated according to interview findings. There were both similarities and differences in service design agencies and clients’ approaches to service design. Service design represents a strategic activity to both parties, and it helps in clients’ business development and in discovering opportunities. It is an ideology; a way of thinking and working. The driving force for purchasing service design seemed to be something else than service design itself. Projects have been bought for 1) change and innovation related development, 2) channel related development or for 3) customer experience related development. Seven purchasing challenge themes were recognised: 1) poor or differing service design understanding, 2) selling of service design, 3) varying expectations, 4) difficulty of pre-evaluation, 5) buyers and buying companies, 6) project process and nature and 7) unclear project results. These all can be considered to cause challenges in organisational service design purchasing. Challenges can be caused by either participant, the agency or the client, and take place at any point of the purchasing process. Some of the challenges could be considered as barriers to purchasing or they play a role in an unsuccessful service project – and therefore, result in an unsuccessful organisational purchase. Purchasing could be facilitated in various ways by either participant; some ways are more attitude based, others actionable improvements. Thesis’s theoretical and managerial findings can be utilised to both improve the selling and purchasing of service design services.

Digital Content Marketing in the Business-to-Business Context. A Case Study on Marketing Communications Agencies.

Marketing has changed because of digitalization. Marketing is moving towards digital channels and more companies are transitioning from “pushing” advertising messages to “pull” marketing, that attracts audience with the content that interests and benefits the audience. This kind of marketing is called content marketing or “inbound” marketing. This study focuses on how marketing communications agencies utilize digital content marketing and what are the best practices with the selected digital content marketing channels. In this study, those channels include blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. The qualitative research method was utilized in order to examine the phenomenon of digital content marketing in-depth. The chosen data collecting method was semi-structured interviewing. A total of seven marketing communications agencies, who currently utilize digital content marketing, were selected as case companies and interviewed. All the case companies are from the marketing communications industry because that industry can be assumed to be well adapted to digital content marketing techniques. There is a research gap about digital content marketing in the B2B context, which increases the novelty value of this research. The study examines what is digital content marketing, why B2B companies use digital content marketing, and how should digital content marketing be conducted through blogs and social media. The informants perceived digital marketing to be a fundamental part of their all marketing. They conduct digital content marketing for the following reasons: to increase sales, to improve their brand image and to demonstrate their own skills. Concrete results of digital content marketing for the case companies include sales leads, new clients, better brand image, and that recruiting is easier. The most important success factors with blogs and social media are the following: 1) Audience-centric thinking. All content planning should start from figuring out which themes interests the target audience. Social media channel choices should be based on where the target audience can be reached. 2) Companies should not talk only about themselves. Instead, content is made about themes that interests the target audience. On social media channels, only a fragment of all shared content is about the company. Rather, most of the shared content is industry-specific content that helps the potential client.

Consumer neuroscience: usability of brain imaging methods in marketing research

Consumer neuroscience (neuromarketing) is an emerging field of marketing research which uses brain imaging techniques to study neural conditions and processes that underlie consumption. The purpose of this study was to map this fairly new and growing field in Finland by studying the opinions of both Finnish consumers and marketing professionals towards it and comparing the opinions to the current consumer neuroscience literature, and based on that evaluate the usability of brain imaging techniques as a marketing research method. Mixed methods research design was chosen for this study. Quantitative data was collected from 232 consumers and 28 marketing professionals by means of online surveys. Both respondent groups had either neutral opinions or lacked knowledge about the four themes chosen for this study: benefits, limitations and challenges, ethical issues and future prospects of consumer neuroscience. Qualitative interview data was collected from 2 individuals from Finnish neuromarketing companies to deepen insights gained from quantitative research. The four interview themes were the same as in the surveys and the interviewees’ answers were mostly in line with the current literature, although more optimistic about the future of the field. The interviews also exposed a gap between academic consumer neuroscience research and practical level applications. The results of this study suggest that there are still many unresolved challenges and relevant populations either have neutral opinions or lack information about consumer neuroscience. The practical level applications are, however, already being successfully used and this new field of marketing research is growing both globally and in Finland.

Arrêt du Conseil d'Etat qui liquide le remboursement d'Etienne Rey à cause des sommes par lui payées au-delà du prix des traités des offices de juges gruyers, droits de quittances attribués aux receveurs et contrôleurs des décimes, et autres traités réduits par arrêt du 15 avril 1710 et sur celui des trésoriers payeurs des gages des officiers des chancelleries revoqué par ledit arrêt

[Acte. 1715-08-20. Versailles]

Éléments de l'expropriation des immeubles pour cause d'utilité publiques / par Octave Roquière,.... Suivis du texte de La loi organique du 3 mai 1841

Comprend : La loi organique du 3 mai 1841

Monument à la mémoire des bolchéviks de Pétrograd [illisible] vivant toujours dans la mémoire du peuple, celui là qui est immortel, qui donne à la cause du peuple : [photographie de presse] / [Agence Rol]

Référence bibliographique : Rol, 60444

Etat [dressé par la Compagnie des fermes.] des matières sujettes au payement de la confirmation à cause de l'heureux avènement à la couronne

[Acte. 1723-10-00]

Arrêt du grand conseil par lequel il est jugé pour les religieux de l'abbaye de Longvilliers, contre Mre Charles d'Aumont, abbé commandataire de ladite abbaye, qu'en attendant le partage parfait des biens de ladite abbaye en trois lots, et le jugement des autres contestations, le concordat passé anciennement entre les parties sera exécuté, et lesdits religieux payés par ledit abbé de toutes leurs pensions, comme étant au nombre requis par ledit concordat, les trois absents pour cause d'étude et exercices de religion censés présents

[Acte. 1692-07-16. Paris]

Arrêt du grand conseil qui déclare abusive la désunion d'un prieuré-cure régulier et l'érection en prieuré simple, faite sans cause légitime et sans lettres patentes du roi, nonobstant le laps de temps ; et qui maintient dans ledit prieuré-cure (de Saint-Jean de Dammartin) un dévolutaire

[Acte. 1706-09-22. Paris]