Full articles for online reading.

Engaging the purchase motivations to charm shoppers >>
The purpose of this paper is to give retailer marketers an insight into consumers’ capacity for feeling pleasure associated with specific purchase motivations across different product categories. Findings indicate that hedonic values of consumer motivations vary for different product categories. Convenience items, like bread, allow little scope for self-congruence, whereas shampoo offers significant scope for pleasurable emotive appeals to boost consumers’ status enhancement and social image. This study identified opportunities to create good feelings for the purchase of both bread and shampoos, by engaging shoppers’ attention on themes relating to social referents and family values.

Evaluating viral marketing: isolating the key criteria >>
Word of mouth communication has become a hot topic. No longer the preserve of offline communication strategists, it is becoming a central platform for interactive marketing communications. Viral marketing has emerged as the electronic form of WoM and involves the principle of passing on or referring news, information or entertainment to another person. Viral marketing communications is a developing and emerging sector and it is important that agencies are able to understand how viral marketing works and be able to evaluate the contribution these types of campaigns make to a client’s marketing communications. This work confirms the need to measure frequency, volume and informativeness. and indicates the need to have clearly defined objectives.

Analyzing advergames: active diversions or actually deception.
An exploratory study >>
The purpose of this paper is to review the nature of advergames and the rhetoric versus reality of their claimed effects and effectiveness, focusing specifically on their use by children. The paper finds that the majority of web sites do not comply with the existing broadcasting codes of practice for mainstream advertising. The paper offers insights about the content of advergames in practice and the potential problems associated with regulation of advertising in different media forms, especially new and evolving media forms.

Alcohol advertising and young people’s drinking >>
This paper aims to investigate relationships between reported alcohol consumption and exposure to alcohol advertising. Young people (17-21 years) were questioned about their alcohol consumption habits, types of alcohol they consume, exposure to alcohol advertising, and a range of other factors linked to drinking (e.g. parental and peer groups alcohol-related behavior and attitudes). While there was no evidence that alcohol advertising plays a significant role in shaping general alcohol consumption among young people, it does seem to play a part in driving consumption of certain types of alcoholic beverage.

New social trends will emerge as US reacts to recession >>
Cheryl Swanson, Principal, Managing Partner, Toniq, New York
Admap Magazine, February 2009, Issue 502

Hone your sales strategies to survive the economic crisis >>
Javier Marcos Cuevas, Lecturer, The Centre for Strategic Marketing and Sales, UK and Lynette Ryals, Professor of Strategic Sales and Account Management, Cranfield School of Management
Admap Magazine, February 2009, Issue 502

Five tough questions for the marketing team in a downturn >>
Fred Geyer and Chiaki Nishino, Partners, Prophet
WARC Online, March 2009

The six levers of accountable marketing >>
Michael Dunn, Chairman and CEO, Prophet
WARC Online, March 2009

Don’t be like Starbucks and lose sight of customers’ brand ideals >>
Robert Passikoff, Founder and President, Brand Keys, Inc.
Admap Magazine, November 2008, Issue 499

ESOMAR WM3:
Facebook, growing global TV, OoH guidelines and cross-media research >>
Laura James, Media Editor, WARC Online
WARC Online, May 2009

WFA Global Advertising and Economic Data 2007-2008 and Outlook for 2009 >>
Laura James, Media Editor, WARC Online
WARC Online, March 2009