Omnichannel & Digital Marketing: EXAM QUESTIONS PAPERS

(Channel strategy and design) According to Anderson et al. (1997), what factors contribute to firms' mass customization and market fragmentation? Mention them and describe two of them.

3 factors contribute to mass customization and market fragmentation: 1. Expanding capabilities for addressability and variety Firms have greater ability to address individually each customer or small subsegment of their market with a combination of database technology and flexible manufacturing. Now firms can engage in a direct dialogue with their customers and appreciate the diversity of their needs. 2. Chanel diversity Firms are shifting from centralized batch production to localized, one-at-a-time production. Meanwhile, distributors, not just manufacturers, are exploiting the generic capabilities for addressability and variety to automate many functions, such as order receipt, shipping, inventory management, and stock replenishment, so they can respond to orders more rapidly and cheaply and customize products. The net result is continuing turmoil and channel diversity. 3. Customer expectations Customers have become accustomed to the benefits of customized products and greater services, ready availability through their preferred channel, and rapid order fulfillment. Thus customers increasingly demand improved performance that is based on what they now know is possible. ⇒ the new ability to address customers in small groups encourages channel diversity. Addressability and diversity together raise customer expectations. And these expectations put further strain on distribution channels.

(Channel conflict & coordination) According to Sa Vinhas and Anderson (2005), why and when it is possible (into a B2B context) to use concurrent channels?

A concurrent channel strategy can lead to conflicts due to intertype competition. Conflicts should be avoided and for that reason, a concurrent channel strategy is not always possible. ● In a growing market, intertype competition is less severe. Channels can focus on finding new customers instead of "stealing" each other's customers. ● If a customer varies its buying behaviour for the same product over purchasing occasions, the customer does not belong to merely one segment. The customer can contact multiple channels and, as such, puts the channel types in direct competition. Therefore, a consistent buying behaviour is desirable. ● Group purchases are a threat for a concurrent channel strategy. Group buyers then use their buying power to augment competition between different suppliers and channel types. For standardized brands, customers compare suppliers and different channel types. However, the channels can merely compete on prices and services when offering standardized products. Therefore, competition increases. For that reason, a concurrent channel strategy is only appropriate for brands and products that customers perceive as differentiated.

(Channel strategy & design) Marketing channels play a critical organizational role in supporting the overall firm strategy (Anderson et al., 1997). In order to do so, four particular requirements must be met. Mention them and describe two of them.

After having chosen the different channel options, a company can set-up its channel strategy. But in order to do this correctly, four requirements must be met: 1. Align channels with an overall competitive strategy The steps to follow to design a competitive channel strategy are similar to the channel design process.This can be done by identifying the threats, opportunities, strengths and weaknesses (SWOT) that will influence channel performance and viability. 2. Decompose and recompose channels into integrated collections of functions Channel functions are the building block of the design process, so combining them can reduce the cost and improve responsiveness 3. Invest in learning Sometimes experiments could fail, but it should be considered an investment in understanding the gained access to the market instead of a loss 4. Translate strategic choices into programs None of the above will be complete unless the company translates strategic choices into programs, projects and near-term plans and establishes control for monitoring channel performance. They can do this by defining the information collected and comparing the expectations graphically with results

(Digital Business Platforms) Based on Vendrell‐Herrero et al. (2018), how business inertia affects the development of different digital business models?

Business inertia presents three subfields of digital business models: 1. Digital servitization (non-native digital firms) : business models that enhance traditional non-digital goods and services with the implementation of ICt and other digital technologies. 2. Digital innovation (native digital firms) enhances the processes of value creation, delivery, and capture of an existing digital offering. 3. Digital entrepreneurship (new entrants) is the study of how new entrants use digital technologies to compete with incumbent firms. Digital native firms usually have the skillset within the organization which allow them to use and implement many digital activities. However, a digital non-native company usually has limited experience with digital technologies because they were created when technology was not as developed as it is now. Vendrell-Herrero et al. (2018) conclude that digital entrepreneurs in emerging economies require specific training and stable institutional support to create a network infrastructure to effectively build a sustainable digital business model.

(Managing Large Data) The correct management of large portions of data has become an emergent but challenging issue for companies. This issue becomes incredibly complex in omnichannel retailing, particularly when it comes to the problem of Data Quality and Data Integration. Based on the paper of Verhoef et al. (2010), explain the reasons why these two processes remain critical as a challenge for companies trying to operate seamlessly across several channels.

Data quality and data integration are extremely difficult for multichannel retailers, which collect customer data across multiple channels. Ideally data should be integrated across channels to provide a complete view of customer activity and facilitate one-to-one marketing. Research has shown that data quality is positively related to performance, although some argue that the marginal benefits of improved data quality will decrease while costs increase. This implies that the profit-maximizing level of data quality will be realized with not-perfect data. Despite their insights, there is limited empirical evidence on the optimal level of data quality and data integration. Moreover, cost of data quality and integration may not rise continuously, but may increase in a stepwise fashion. It is also important that different functions, such as marketing and service, have access to the same data

(Store Environment) In modern online retailing environments, retailers are continually striving to overcome the lack of sensory inputs, and emerging digital technology can attract consumers by creating multi-sensory experiences. The results from Heller et al.'s (2019) study suggest that, in an m-AR online retailing context, touch control, compared to voice control, positively affects consumers' willingness-to-pay, as touch control reduces the effect of mental intangibility. Based on this paper and the DAST-framework (Roggeveen et al., 2019), can this finding affect how online stores intend to sell their products?

For sure it can affect how online stores intend to sell their products. Online retailers have to be very aware about the concept of mental intangibility (something being hard to "imagine" if you buy it online as opposed to buying something physically). The objective for online retailers is to make their products as tangible as possible. By providing sensory feedback in the form of touch control (and other sensory feedback, not ONLY visual sensory feedback) customers will be able to "feel" the products way better and this will make it so mental intangibility drops, which will lead to an increase in decision comfort. Decision comfort will lead to an increase in willingness-to-pay. To be very concrete: online retailers should invest in providing multiple digital options so that customers can "experience" the products in multiple ways (e.g. auditory cues, visual cues, touch cues)

(Store Environment) According to Roggeveen et al. (2019), four factors determine retail atmospherics. These four factors are not limited to affect just the in-store experience and out-of-store experiences that the retailer can control or influence, thus incorporating multiple retail touch-points that a customer may encounter during a journey. What are these four factors? Name and define each of them, and provide examples of (digital) elements belonging to each of these key dimensions.

Four factors are as follows: Design factor: pertains to visual elements, whether in store, online, or on other retailer-controlled touchpoints, so it includes the layout and style of the store, website, or flyer. Functional design pertains to layout of the store, comfort of the store, etc. While aesthetic design refers to the colors of the store, the style of the store, accessories in the store. An example would be the path of an IKEA store (functional, in-store) or pictures used on a website (aesthetic, digital) Ambient factor: while the design factor pertains to the forefront of our awareness, ambient factors are background conditions, like lightning (in-store) or brightness of pictures on the website (digital) Social factor: the social factor encompasses "the people", in a broad sense we're talking about customers & employees (in-store) or comments from other customers (digital) Trialability: refers to the ease with which a customer can "try out" a new product or service. A perfume sample from ICI Paris XL (in-store) is a good example, or a Netflix free monthly trial (digital) is another good example.

(Retail Promotion Strategies) Consumers might differ on their degree of involvement or personal relevance of the products they buy/use/consume. Based on Kim and Han's (2019) work, what are the limitations of price discounts on consumer response to (fairtrade) products? What is the main takeout of their study that relates to mobile apps and email?

Kim and Han researched the persuasion model (applied to fairtrade products). Customers of fairtrade products are often more-involved: they know the story behind the brand or have more personal relevance when buying the products. Price promotions on this type of products will lead to a decrease in perceived brand credibility for more-involved customers and, therefore, they won't react the same way to price promotions as less involved customers do. Managers should be cautious that price discounts do not target more-involved consumers. Price discounts have been shown to improve response for less-involved consumers. Hence, if brand and sales managers aim to expand fairtrade sales by attracting less-involved consumers, Kim and Han suggest sending out personalized sales promotions via mobile apps or email.

(The Future of Internet Retailing) Pauwels and Neslin (2015) address the crucial decision firms face today about which channels they should make available to customers for transactions. By using a case-study, their work supports the decision of opening brick-and-mortar stores. What are the main findings of their work?

Many consumers seek for an "enjoyable" buying experience and find that online stores can not fully replace the physical ones. Pauwels & Neslin found that physical stores' introduction increased the company's net revenue by 19,8%. The research revealed interesting findings: the physical store's addition has no significant impact on the Internet Channel. In-store purchases more than compensate for the decline of purchases in catalog channels. Store introduction increases the total returns and exchange frequency. The study result imply that setting up brickand-mortar stores will have little impact on their existing channels and significantly boost the company's net revenues. This phenomenon is associated with a so-called "availability effect," meaning that adding channels is a form of increasing distribution, lowering customers' search costs, and increasing sales. Store introduction also increases customer retention.

(Multichannel integration) It has been highlighted that Multi-, Cross-, and Omni-Channel retailing strategies represent a unique set of activities when selling through more than one channel. What are their central features, according to Beck & Rygl (2015)?

Multi-channel retailing: The set of activities involved in selling merchandise or services through more than one channel or all widespread channels, whereby the customer cannot trigger channel interaction and/or the retailer does not control channel integration. There is no interaction or integration between the different channels. They operate independently. (E.g. a brickand-mortar retailer, who is part of a franchise, does not own its own website, but there is a groupwebsite. There are two channels available to the customers to purchase from: a physical store and a website, but both channels are managed separately.) Omni-channel retailing: The different channels are fully integrated and communicate with each other. Customers can interact with different channels. Hence, all channels are connected and complement each other; this provides a seamless shopping experience. (E.g. 'Hema' from online retailer Alibaba. All products in the physical 'Hema' store have a QR code, which customers can scan to get more information about the product. It is no longer a need to wait in line to buy the product in the same store since the 'Hema' app can be used to check-out.) Cross-channel retailing: Two interpretations. (1) The customer can trigger partial interaction and/or the retailer can control partial integration of at least two channels or all channels widespread at that time. An example of this is products bought online that can be collected or returned to a physical store. (2) The customer can trigger full interaction and/or the retailer can control full integration of at least two channels, but not for all channels widespread at that time. An example of this are coupons that can be redeemed across all channels except the physical store. In both definitions integration is present; the first definition requires partial integration, the second definition requires full integration. Both definitions also demand multiple channels; the first definition uses all channels, the second definition does explicitly not use all channels.

(Retail promotion strategies) According to Grewal D. et al. (2011), exclusive and invitation-only promotions are a new type of sales promotions driven to the consumer using online channels. What are the advantages of using this particular type of brand activation?

Some online retailers offer a limited set of products for limited time periods to select groups of consumers who must subscribe to the site, which are called exclusive promotions. Some allow subscriptions only after the customer has been invited by another subscriber, which creates a sense of exclusiveness. These are called the invitation-only promotions. The offers generally remain available for a limited duration, such as 4 h or until the merchandise sells out. Avantages: - Recent research suggests consumers value exclusive promotions over inclusive ones - Invitation-only promotions reduce the chance that other consumers will see the offer and form adverse perceptions or begin to expect to find these fashion items at sharp discounts - The sites usually include a comparison of the regular and sale price (i.e., comparative price format). By using reference prices that provide consumers a cue of the quality and value of the merchandise, these online retailers are likely enhancing consumer demand.

(Customer experience management) According to Grewal and Roggeveen's (2020) editorial, recent works related to Customer Journey Management (CJM) identify three stages in the customer decision process: pre-purchase, purchase, and post-purchase. How are these three stages related? Are they 'linear' or not? How can these newer advanced digital technologies (e.g., systems based on Artificial Intelligence or Internet of Things) affect these stages?

The customer journey was initially described as a linear process consisting of three phases; the pre-purchase, purchase, and post-purchase phase. More recently, it became clear that the journey was somewhat iterative and dynamic than linear. Each phase in the journey can influence the next one. Some customers might skip a phase or go back to a previous one (Grewal & Roggeveen, 2020). In other words there might be non-linearities in the process. This may be because of the increased emphasis on trialability such that after the product is sampled in the pre-purchase stage they jump to the post-purchase stage.IIn addition, advanced technologies (e.g., mobile, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things can facilitate the fundamental nonlinearities that mark such journeys. For example, AI- and IoT-enabled machines (e.g., washing machines, refrigerators, cars) can order replacement products, request services, and schedule deliveries, such that the consumer isn't involved in the purchase stage.

((Retail) branding in an interactive world) According to Moreau (2020), the specific way an item is packaged and unpacked by the consumer can have substantial effects on their current consumption experience and future purchase experiences. Consequently, how can investments in "doorstep branding" be effective? Explain.

The doorstep branding strategy has to do with the fact that organizations want the consumer experience to start as soon as the package is delivered to their door. It is the first possibility of how brands could enhance the interaction between themselves and their consumers. Enterprises can anticipate this fact and make investments to improve their packaging and win over their customers. It is proven that the first physical impression of an online purchase is crucial for the buyer, whether to keep or return the product. Creativity is a must, and the packaging's design must be in line with the brand's image, its ethical values and principles. For example: If a brand only encompasses ecological elements in their products and their brand image is based upon ecologic values, they also need to translate this ecological part in their packaging. Investing in attractive, (personal) and ecological packaging can prove to be rewarding as it shapes the consumers' feelings about the product even before they use it. If a package has a nice design and aesthetic, and it meets expectations; customers (and even influencers) can express their contentment by creating 'unboxing videos.' These could then be viewed by potential buyers in the decision-making phase, within the customer journey. So it is crucial for brands to invest in nice packaging.

(Digital Business Platforms) Today's business environment has become more interactive, as customers are continuously engaged with firms' offerings and activities, mostly through social media platforms. While social media is an umbrella term that refers to technologically different platforms, scholars and practitioners usually do not distinguish if the content placed on these sites would be more or less suited to specific platforms (e.g., Instagram or Facebook). Based on the findings of Shahbaznezhad et al. (2021), is there a role of the type of social media platform in facilitating social media engagement behavior? What are the consequences for the practice of social media marketing?

The rise and growth of social media platforms have redesigned the role of customers as the latter group has shifted from being silent observers to being active participants, co-producers and co-creators. The study of Shahbaznezhad et al. (2019) reveals the correlation between social media content format and user engagement. The results proved that: (1) The format of content and it's media richness (photos, video, text) have a significant impact on users' engagement behaviour. (2) The social media platform environment (Facebook vs. Instagram) influences the way users interact with a company's fan page. For instance, Instagram generates passive engagement as users tend to "like" more than leaving comments as on Facebook (active engagement). (3) Three different categories of social media content create varying users' behaviour: (a) Rational content → more passive engagement and more sensitive to the content type (b) Emotional content → more active engagement (c) Transactional content → users' engagement behaviour remained independent of it Thus, it's crucial for companies to fully understand which content format and category is suitable for different social media platforms and how their business can capitalise on the advantages of each. Correct digital marketing strategy generates active users' engagement, drives transactions and builds a trustworthy brand image.

(Customer experience management) Based on Hoyer et al. (2020), three complementary technologies (or rather technology clusters) are considered to have the most significant impact on the customer experience: Internet of things (IoT), augmented reality (AR) / virtual reality (VR) / mixed reality (MR), and artificial intelligence (AI) based virtual assistants/chatbots/robots. In which ways can each of these technologies add value across the customer journey?

There are 3 technologies which are assumed to have the biggest impact on customer experience, IoT, AR/VR/MR, virtual assistants/chatbots/robots (AI). IoT ● generates massive data and can provide consumers with rich, detailed and relevant information. This information can aid their decision process and track the information that customers access online and send them relevant information on products when they are in a store of the same brand. It can also lead to time savings by automating transactions AR/VR/MR ● it allows consumers to experience and test products or services in real-time. This has the consequence that it improves their knowledge of the products and when trying out new products, increases their curiosity, enjoyment and fun. AI ● selecting relevant information, customizing choice sets and advising customers regarding their choices. AI plays an important role in answering questions and providing customers with the information they need to make a decision

(Managing large data) Based on Li and Kannan (2014), what is a common limitation of last-click attribution metrics and seven-day average metrics concerning crediting different channels related to conversion outcomes in a customer's purchase funnel?

These are the two most widely used metrics in the industry for determining the contribution of each channel to purchase conversions: (1) The last-click attribution metric gives all credit to the visit at which conversion occurred. (2) The seven-day average attribution metric assigns the conversion credit equally to all the visits made in the previous seven days. Limitations of last click attribution: it ignores the prior channel touches. For example, a customer might decide to buy the product when he visits their website, so the last click attribution will attribute that conversion to the website. However, this person has visited the store multiple times and saw several display banner ads of this product on Youtube. → Last click attributes the conversion solely to the website while the other channels played a role in the conversion as well. → Carryover and spillover effects of other channels are ignored Common limitations of last-click and seven-day average attribution metrics: These metrics consider only those visits that result in conversion immediately. Although they may provide passable results in product categories with a very short purchase decision hierarchy (e.g., with one or two touchpoints) and with fewer channels, they will invariably be misleading in product/service categories with a longer purchase decision hierarchy, as in high-involvement categories (e.g., consumer durables, travel services), as well as for firms with multiple channels, both customer and firm initiated.

(Channel strategy and design) Today's distribution channel systems are increasingly complex. Thus, this may affect how value is created toward consumers (Sa Vinhas et al., 2010). Describe how this new scenario could affect the value creation process.

Today's way of doing business has become very complex. This is why companies need to have a clear understanding about their environment before being able to build an appropriate channel design and strategy. Therefore they need to create value on 3 levels for all channel entities. - Channel system: design of the channels, which has to be a good balance of value for all actors. - Relationships between actors. - Individual actors: adjust design to the main goals of the actors. For the new complex scenario, this means that multiple channels have to be chosen for the producer and for the partners, which also has consequences for the end-user customer. The value creation on the 3 levels of the channel system will thus also change, because of the different channel choices which have to be made. In general, the number of individual actors will grow and the relationships between actors will become more complex. This thus results in a more complex channel system to manage this whole complex design of the channels.

(Channel conflict & integration) Based on Guan et al.'s (2019) paper, when it comes to deciding the Wholesale price and the Retail price of a specific good, manufacturers and retailers can face an Upfront Market Research (UMR) scenario by deciding first to perform Market Research and then Quality Advertising, to close the information gaps linked to price setting. On the other hand, manufacturers and retailers can directly develop Quality Advertising, and subsequently engage in Market Research, configuring an Upfront Quality Advertising (UQA) scenario. The authors argue that "retailer is always better off in the UQA than the UMR scenario while the manufacturer can find either UMR or UQA decision sequence more beneficial." How can this happen? Explain for both the cases of manufacturers and retailers.

UMR: retailer first decides on her market research action, i.e., finding out and conveying information about consumers' product quality preferences to the product manufacturer. Subsequently, the latter makes his product quality advertising decision. UQA: manufacturer first decides to do product quality advertising to consumers (and the retailer), and then the retailer conducts research to assess consumers' quality preferences. "retailer is always better off in the UQA than the UMR scenario while the manufacturer can find either UMR or UQA decision sequence more beneficial." UMR: - retailer's market research helps both firms determine higher profit generating wholesale and retail prices. - induces the manufacturer to spend more/ less on advertising his product quality depending on the consumer's specific quality preference. This informed quality advertising strategy, however, does not necessarily improve the manufacturer's payoff. This is because when the observed preference for quality of the consumer is high, the manufacturer has to spend more on advertising his quality to convince the consumer, thereby increasing his expenditure on quality advertising. As regards the retailer, her expected payoff from proceeding with market research is independent of whether the manufacturer discloses product quality information, and she conducts market research if its cost is sufficiently low. UQA: - manufacturer cannot adjust his quality advertising strategy based on the consumer's revealed preference, as he has to make this decision at the very first stage. - could become a way to provide a greater incentive to the retailer to undertake market research. - retailer's incentive for conducting market research hinges on her updated expectation about product quality, which is contingent on the manufacturer's quality advertising action. Specifically, if the manufacturer advertises the product is of high quality, the retailer would be willing to conduct market research given that the expected return can cover the expenditure on market research. However, if the manufacturer does not advertise the quality information, the retailer would infer that the product quality is low and consequently cease market research. - in contrast to the UMR scenario, the manufacturer is more likely to advertise his product quality in the UQA scenario. This subsequently leads to a higher level of information transparency in the distribution channel as both firms realize benefits from undertaking their respective information enhancing actions. Comparing the channel members' outcomes in UQA and UMR, our analysis shows that the retailer can always achieve a higher ex ante payoff by postponing her decision on market research until observing the manufacturer's quality advertising behavior. However, either decision timing could become the manufacturer's dominant option, which implies that he would voluntarily give up the chance to customize his quality advertising strategy.

((Retail) branding in an interactive world) In recent years, the way brand value is created and managed has shifted from single to shared ownership. In this new context, and according to Swaminathan et al. (2020), a) what are the roles and functions of brands? b) how is the brand value (co)created? c) how should brands be managed?

a) Due to hyperconnectivity, we see that the traditional roles and functions of brands are changing more and more. The first role that a brand adopts because of hyperconnectivity is the role of a weak quality signal. In the past there was evidence of information asymmetry between buyer and seller, and brands had to act as a quality signal. From a hyperconnected economy, consumers can get information themselves much more easily making the information asymmetry decrease as well. The second role is that of "mental cues in an information-rich environment". The way in which brand information is processed by the consumer has to do with his/her motivation, ability, and opportunity to process information. However, brands can act as cues that access knowledge kept in consumers' memories. The third function that a brand takes up in a hyperconnected environment is a brand as an instrument of identity expression. This identity vision of brands is based on the idea that brands become infused with associations through their use. A consequence of hyperconnectivity gives consumers the possibility to adopt multiple personae on their devices and change their identities frequently. Because they spend so much time online, their real and virtual identities can become entangled and can lead to identity conflicts. From this conflict it is therefore very important that brands are used as an instrument of identity expression in order to prevent this. The fourth role is emerging due to the fact that brands are increasingly expanding their social role through becoming activist tools aligned with various social and political issues. As a result, they are taking up their fourth role as containers of socially constructed meaning. The fifth role relates to the fact that, due to a hyperconnected environment, brands are increasingly embedded in complex networks consisting of users, partners, co-creators, and co-owners. Brands do have the ability to extract value from their position in the network from the network effect that emerges. From their position in this network they can also simplify users' navigation thus contributing to seamless user experiences on online platforms. The fifth role therefore concerns brands as architects of value in networks. The sixth role brands take on is the role of catalysts or communities. Hyperconnectivity has made it easier for individuals to establish and join brand communities. From previous research conducted behind brand communities and how they pass on values to their members, it can be stated that in this context, brands serve as catalysts of social interaction and community through shared consciousness and brand use, loyalty, and engagement among community members. The second to last role brands play in a hyperconnected environment is that of arbitrators or controversy. The first role mentioned, the one of a brand as signals or nodes in memory, has led to brands being constructed as symbols. When brands are able to serve as symbols, this seventh role emerges within identity and sociopolitical spheres. In contrast to the past, brands nowadays adopt controversial stances on key topics such as feminism and racial issues. In doing so, they will appeal to consumers at the epicenter of the cultural controversy. The eighth and final role is the one of a brand as steward of data privacy. On the one hand, Hyperconnectivity has made the boundaries of brands increasingly blurred. On the other hand, it has allowed brands to have much more access to their consumers' data. Of course, there are a number of challenges here, given that there is more and more doubt about the confidentiality and security of their data. That's why it's very important for brands to protect their consumers' data and ensure the privacy of their clients. b) The transition towards a Hyperconnected world has led to some business changing consequences. One of these consequences implies a shift from single to shared ownership regarding brand value creation and management. Brand messages are no longer only being shaped by the brand owners, but consumers and other stakeholders are also taking part in the shaping of brand messages. Therefore, we will speak of value co-creation instead of value creation. Co-creation of brand messaging can be a risk because of lack of control, but it is also one of the most influential concepts in contemporary marketing. In other words, there is a need for co-creation. It is crucial to give notice to how the customer can contribute to this co-creation and brand value creation through customer experience. In this manner value is both defined and created by the consumer. Next to this it is prominent that co-creation between consumer and brands, offers additional values for both the stakeholders in the organization and the consumer. Furthermore consumers are no longer passive recipients of brand‐related cues and much more in touch with each other through social platforms, which also influences the consumer's perception of a product or service. This 'social media influence' can be divided into 3 processes: compliance, identification and internalization. Compliance means that the customer voluntarily experiences social influence in order to be accepted by the group. Identification means that the individual takes over the group view and hopes to benefit from the relationship he or she builds with this group. In the process of internalization, the individual takes on a new behavior which is close to that of the group. Recent research conducted on co-creation has indeed found that consumers play an important role in forming co-creation values and therefore have high control over a brand. As a brand that is using dynamic platforms, it is very important to focus on social capital. This concept mainly focuses on shared norms, values, trust, cooperation and reciprocity, which support the social groups at stake. This in turn will ensure that social media equity will be created with the customers when these connections are made between retailers' brands and their customers. c) Brands need to be managed as a part of an ecosystem in which organizations need to connect with other companies to build a sustainable relationship with them. In this marketing ecosystem all the data, produced by outsiders, a company has to deal with, is seen as an asset and an opportunity to learn about the company and the customers more deeply. In addition, the ecosystem could also deliver the opportunity to strengthen the interaction with the organization's customer base. Also, platforms like social media can be exploited to improve brand-equity and improve the community feel of a brand.