The Importance of Academic Journals - Essay Example

Theoretical Ideas of the Barclays Bank Introduction This paper is based on a hypothetical situation that is created for the purpose of undertaking the narrative involved in the paper. This is illustrated below: In this case, the writer is attending a second interview at the Barclays Bank headquarters in the UK. In the interview, he is told by the marketing manager that he finds absolutely no reason, motivation or time to read academic journals. Due to this, the writer was asked by the marketing manager of Barclays Bank to convince him of the importance and relevance of reading the Journal of Services Marketing. In order to answer this question, the writer is going to provide a practical example of the importance of academic journals by critically analysing the concepts described in the journals. The critique will involve the relation of these core ideas to Barclays Bank in order to convince the marketing manager that marketing in the service sector can be significantly improved through the integration of knowledge acquired through academic research works conducted and presented in academic journals. Journal Number 1 Wallace, E. and De Chernatony, L. (2011) “The Influence of Culture and Market Orientation of Service Brands: Insights from Irish Banking and Retail Firms” Journal of Services Marketing 25/7 pp475 – 488 The essence of this journal is to analyse the fundamental relationship between a service firm's culture and its brand as well as the development and implementation of brand values. The journal is written by two professors who have a reputation for experience both in academia and in consultancy to firms in the service industry. Due to this, they use their experiences in the lecture halls, research work and in managing or consultancy to real business to examine two important things in business: the service sector and branding. The service sector is not given so much prominence in research. Most research work is done for companies that produce tangible products. Thus, these two professors produce a research on a topic that is fairly rare and they do this to give people in specialized niches like banking to get an insight into things and trends in the modern society. Healey identifies branding from three separate angles (2007). First of all, they argue that a brand is the name of a product or service. The second facade is that a brand is the legal trademark of a given product or service. Thirdly, a brand is a belief, or view that is connected to a given product or service. Davis (2008) identifies that brand encompasses the perception or the kind of emotion that a given product or service invokes in a person when it is mentioned. Thus, Barclays can be seen as a brand on its own. Barclays comes with a unique business identity that has a legal existence that is separate from its owners. Additionally, Barclays incites some kind of mindset or emotions in people who hear about it. The emotions that would be typically connected to Barclays is the long-standing history of being a loyal partner to businesses and individuals and its British identity in countries outside the UK. Barclays may incite some degree of conservative-thinking amongst some people, particularly younger people. However, it is not just simple and straightforward for Barclays to maintain its position as an industrial leader. Brands are built and used to the advantage of a firm (Nelson, 2011). So Barclays has to work at improving its image in order to remain competitive and increase its market share. And the information provided in this research can be very important and worthwhile. According to Brody (2009), brand building in the service sector is a process and it is quite tough to attain in isolation. Thus, the journal under review sought to examine how important banks and retail entities build their brands and implement their brand management plans. In doing this, Wallace and De Chernatory (2011) interviewed 20 managers in banks and retail firms. The first observation that they made was that the managers admitted that brand building in the service sector is tougher than it is in the production sector. This is obviously because brands are mental images and they do well in an environment where customers can feel and sense what is on offer – tangibility (Thomas, 2010). This puts a challenges at the doorstep of a bank like Barclays. However, MacDonald and Frow (2011) identify that “one means of increasing the tangibility of service brands is to project the brand's values through physical elements (symbols, representations etc )” (p220). Klein et al identify that usually, tangibility in the service industry is projected through the service provider's corporate image (2011). In the case of our company, Barclays Bank, the services are often presented through the Blue Barclays Logo shown below: Figure 1: Barclays Bank Corporate Logo In effect, this represents the banking services that Barclays offers to the public. In this research, we are looking at how we can use this brand as an asset and as a tool and use it progressively to incite a strong customer identification in customers. Wallace and De Chernatory identifies that branding in the service sector is a social process that involves three main things: people, shared values or organizational culture and customer perception. This was confirmed in the preliminary interviews the conducted with the respondents Thus, they sought to examine the most important elements of this in the service sector and how it can be optimized to provide the best results for customers. The summary of the findings are that: 1. There is a strong connection between brand and culture 2. The procedures used in the organization guides the way they operate and this in turn affects consumers' perception. 3. The banking industry is mainly a hierarchy structure so things are transferred from top to bottom. 4. In planning, businesses must be aware that they are doing this to attain competitive advantage, customer preference, employee empowerment and customer class and loyalty. In other words, to build a brand, these four things need to be present and the company must examine them critically. Barclays must understand that the way people do things within the company are likely to influence the way people think of the Barclays Brand. Also, the procedures that they use and the rules that guide conduct go a long way to influence the culture and the way things are done. Thus, Barclays can make the best use of its hierarchy structure to define who they want to be and how they want to be seen. Through this they can regulate the way people would see and perceive them. This will be based on the kind of people Barclays want to conduct business with and once this core is attracted, other people from other backgrounds can be included. Von Stamm (2008) identifies that brand is seen by most as an asset and most banks use an emergent strategy. This is very relevant to the fourth point where the need for customer preference and customer loyalty is important. Due to this, a firm must use this emergent strategy which involves the identification of new needs and new requirements, particularly from customers and integrating them into the way they do thing (Von Stamm, 2008). In this wise, a firm like Barclays must not impose targets on branding from the top without regards or sensitivity to what customers want. Thus, Barclays would have to integrate some aspects into their culture that would allow them to lend an ear to customers and satisfy their needs. In the research, it was also identified that the implementation of branding through the improvement of culture could be problematic. The researchers identify that values often fail when the firm loses focus. So focus is important and this can always be kept though constant monitoring. Also, the journal uncovers that another ingredient for success in the implementation of branding is to have transformational leadership. “Transformational leadership is a style of leadership in which the leader identifies the needed change, creates a vision to guide the change through inspiration and executes that change with the commitment of others” (Marshall, 2010: 3). This is done through idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration (Lang, 2011). This kind of leadership will provide some degree of empowerment of employees and help them to make independent decisions and change where necessary. Thus, the best way of building brands in the service sector is to start by ensuring that those in frontline positions understand and espouse the core philosophy or idea that the firm demands (Thornsbury, 1998). This can be followed by promoting a single set of values that would be accepted throughout the organization and the training and retaining of employees. This must also be complemented by rewards to those who openly carry out the firm's philosophy. Thus, brand building in Barcalys Bank needs to be done in such a way and manner that all the employees who deal directly with customers understand the values of Barclays. This will complement the kind of system that Barclays wants to maintain and this would attract customers and they would build a strong connection with brand and have that special feeling of the traditions, values and culture upheld in Barclays any time that Barclays is mentioned. Journal Number 2 Mandhachitara, R. and Poolthong, Y. (2011) “A Model of Customer Loyalty and Corporate Social Responsibility” Journal of Services Management 25/2 pp122 – 133 In this journal, Mandhachitara and Poolthong identify the role of corporate social responsibility (the independent service) in promoting the perceived service quality in relation to customer loyalty. So they examined the linkage between corporate social responsibility and customer loyalty via the idea of perceived service quality. In other words, they identified whether corporate social responsibility increases the mindset that customer have about the quality of services rendered by a firm and does this have an impact on long-term connections to customer loyalty or not. In this research, the researchers took data from 275 bank customers and used statistical methods to examine the responses in order to draw the link between corporate social responsibility, and customer loyalty. Corporate social responsibility is a concept that has gained prominence over the past two decades. This is mainly attributed to the demand for some kind of social justice from corporate entities. According to Esposito (2009), corporate social responsibility has three main components: concern for people, concern for community and the concern for the environment. This means that in operating, a business will have to be sensitive to the people who affect and are affected by its operations. This can be discharged through giving back to the society and taking into account the future generations that would inhabit the community and acting in a more responsible manner. “The corporate social responsibility of business encompasses the economic, legal and ethical and discretional (philanthropic) expectations that society has of organizations at a given point in time” (Carroll and Bucholtz, 2009: 40). Barclays Bank is one of the top entities that is involved in corporate social responsibility. From the Barclays Bank website, five distinct corporate social responsibility are identified: Addressing financial exclusion in both developing and developed countries, including the UK Reducing our impact on the environment and tackling climate change Investing in and supporting local communities Encouraging and supporting diversity in our workforce Acting fairly, ethically and with integrity in everything we do (Barclays Bank, 2012). Barclays is spending billions of British Pounds each year to attain these objectives. They sacrifice directly and indirectly. Through this, Barclays gets to help people in a genuine manner and they also get to promote some connection with the communities they operate in. This journal is testing whether corporate social responsibilities like this adds up to a firm's image or not amongst customers and helps them to build a loyalty to the brand. The findings are relevant to Barclays because they can learn whether they are getting some indirect benefits through long-term customer connection or not. Customer loyalty refers to a long term desire to link up with a given service sector organization and continue to pay for their services into the distant future (Chaudhuri and Holdbrook, 2001). Attitudinal loyalty leads to respect, patronage and long term relationship with a given entity (Kotler, 2008). This occur when there is a perceived service quality (Milton, 2010). From the research, it was identified that out of the 275 respondents, several percentages had similar views on the key pointers. 61.95% stated that good corporate social responsibility led to perceived service quality. In other words, they associate the quality of the service provided by the entity through the kind of commitment they have to corporate social responsibility. Another 75.6% stated that they look at corporate social responsibility in deciding the quality of service company. Also, corporate social responsibility builds attitudinal loyalty amongst 76.43% whilst 76.51% base their decision to become repeat customers on social responsibility. The journal illustrates that the intangibility of service causes customers to base their decision to remain with a company on the kind of corporate social responsibility they discharge. Thus, corporate social responsibility plays a major part in attitudinal loyalty matters. Barclays bank is therefore on the right path. It is building a strong corporate social responsibility portfolio that can help her to increase its market share and build long term partnerships. Due to this, the marketing manager needs to understand that it is important for the company to continue investing in corporate social responsibility. Also, they will have to tell customers about what they do and report on what they do in the area of social responsibility. Inferences From these two journals, major inferences can be made that are relevant to the marketing manager of Barclays UK. First of all, brand building is a social process that has a complex linage of the people of Barclays, the culture and shared value of Barclays as well as customer perception of the bank. Brand building in Barclays can be built by creating a culture that is in sync with the values of the bank and ensuring that it is transmitted through the rank and file of the bank. However, Barclays is better off if it allows some degree of flexibility to allow customer needs to be integrated accordingly. To be successful, Barclays can ensure that the staff members remained focused. This can be done through monitoring, employee empowerment and transformational leadership. From the second journal, it is inferred that corporate social responsibility has a direct relationship with perceived service quality. This is because several bank clients focus on corporate social responsibility in choosing a bank. This leads to attitudinal loyalty which in turn leads to repeat loyalty. Conclusions on the Importance of Academic Journals. Academic journals are important because the authors are often people of the highest level of reputation. They are mostly learned individuals who have experience in lecturing, research, consultancy and management. These people have learnt, reflected and applied important concepts and ideas for years and are credible individuals whose studies are important and can provide clues for further improvement of business practice by managers and other people who read their works. Secondly, academic journals provide information about things that have been done already. They prevent the repetition of costly mistakes or what some people call learning the hard way. Academic journals provide credible sources for people and for managers. These sources can be used the support arguments and suggestions for better actions by a manager. Finally, academic journals are based on recent studies. Due to this, they provide insights to what is happen and how things are changing in the world around us. This enables us to make positive decisions that improve things in businesses. References Barclays Bank (2012) Corporate Social Responsibility [Online] Available at: http://www.barclayswealth.com/about-us/corporate-social-responsibility.htm Accessed: November 14, 2012. Barnajee, S. B. (2007) Corporate Social Responsibility: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly Surrey: Edward Elgar Publishing. Brody, T. (2009) Brand Management in the 21st Century Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons. Carroll, A. B. and Bucholtz, A. K. (2009) Business and Society Ethics and Stakeholder Management Mason, OH: Cengage Chaudhuri, A. and Holdbrook, M. B. (2001) “The Chain Effect to Brand Performance” Journal of Marketing Vol 65 April pp81 – 93 Davis, M. (2009) Fundamentals of Brands London: AVA Book. Esposito, (2009) Put your Corporate Social Responsibility Act Together Mustang, OK: Tate Publications. Healey, M. (2007) What is Branding Hove, UK: RotoVision, SA Klein, A., Stein, K. and Brands, J. (2011) Marketing for Services – Theoretical Aspects and Practical Elements Berlin: GRIN Verlag. Kotler, P. (2008) Marketing Management Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Lang, M. (2011) Transformational Leadership Berlin: GRIN Verlag. MacDonald, M. and Frow, P. (2011) Marketing Plans for Services: A Corporate Guide London: Wiley. Mandhachitara, R. and Poolthong, Y. (2011) “A Model of Customer Loyalty and Corporate Social Responsibility” Journal of Services Management 25/2 pp122 – 133 Marshall, E. (2010) Transformational Leadership in Nursing London: Springer Milton, S. (2010) Quality and Service Management Mason, OH: Cengage Nelson, S. (2009) “Branding and Pioneering Businesses and Entities in the United Kingdom” Journal of Luxury Business Studies Vol 16 (2) pp521 – 545 Thomas, J. (2010) Brand Management: Theories, Models and Cases Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons Publishing. Thornsbury, J. (1998) Service Management Mason, OH: Cengage Von Stamm, B. (2008) Managing Innovation, Design and Creativity London: Wiley. Wallace, E. and De Chernatony, L. (2011) “The Influence of Culture and Market Orientation of Service Brands: Insights from Irish Banking and Retail Firms” Journal of Services Marketing 25/7 pp475 – 488 Read More