Holistic Marketing Management, Volume 6, Issue 4, Year 2016

Vol ume6, I s s ue4, 201 6

TheodorVal ent i nPURCĂREA

Edi t ori al :Market i ng Pl anni ng Met hodol ogy,Organi zi ng f or Market i ng Transf ormat i on,and Ensuri ng Rel evance and Consi st ency f or Cust omers,whi l e Understandi ng Emot i onalNuance

Cos t el I l i uț ăNEGRI CEA I oanMat ei PURCĂREA

Chal l enges f or Di gi talMarket i ng Capabi l i t i es wi t hi nt he Cont ext oft he Mai n Ongoi ng Market i ng ManagementTrend

TheodorPURCĂREA

A Hol i st i c Approach ofRevenue Managementand i t s Rel at i on t o Agi l e Market i ng.Touri stExperi ence i n a Cust omer-Dri ven Era

Di anaSOCA

Conf erences Organi zed by t he RAU SchoolofManagement -Market i ng i n Oct ober-December 2016

TheodorPURCĂREA

The Lat estI ssue ofour Part ner Journal ,„Market i ng Sci ence and I nspi rat i ons” , Vol .XI ,2016,Number 3,Comeni us Uni versi ty i n Brat i sl ava,Sl ovaki a

Editorial Board of “Holistic Marketing Management” (A refereed journal published four times annually by the School of Management-Marketing of the Romanian-American University) Editor-in-Chief Theodor Valentin PURCĂREA

Bernd HALLIER

John SAEE

John L. STANTON

Léon F. WEGNEZ

William PERTTULA Levent ALTINAY

Andrew KILNER Dana ZADRAZILOVA Riccardo BELTRAMO Sinisa ZARIC Gabriela SABĂU Hélène NIKOLOPOULOU Vasa LÁSZLÓ Peter STARCHON John MURRAY Kamil PÍCHA Irena JINDRICHOVSKA

Holistic Marketing Management

President of European Retail Academy; President of EuCVoT, Member of the Astana Economic Scientists Club; Former Managing Director EHI Retail Institute, Germany, Chairman of the Advisory Board of EuroShop, Chairman of the Board of the Orgainvent, Trustee of EHI Retail Institute at GLOBALG.A.P. President - Association of Global Management Studies (USA); Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues; Former Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Management Systems, USA; Australian Graduate School of Entrepreneurship, the Faculty of Business and Enterprise, Swinburne University of Technology; Member of France’s National Academy of Scientific Research (CNRS); Director - ESB International Teaching and Research Exchanges, Reutlingen University, Germany Professor of Food Marketing, Erivan K. Haub School of Business, Saint Joseph’s University Philadelphia, USA; Director, Institute of Food Products Marketing, Editor, Journal of Food Products Marketing Secretary General, International Association of the Distributive Trade, AIDA Brussels; Member of France’s Academy of Commercial Sciences; Doctor Honoris Causa of NUPSPA (SNSPA) Bucharest; Hall of Fame of the European Retail Academy, Honored Personality 2015 Internet Marketing Professor, College of Business, San Francisco State University, USA Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship, Research Area Leader, Oxford School of Hospitality Management, Faculty of Business, Oxford Brookes University, UK First MBA Director at the Rennes Graduate School of Business in France; Director of RAFME Research into Management Excellence; PhD (Cambridge), MBA (City, London) Faculty of International Economic Relations, University of Economics, Prague, Czech Republic University of Turin, Italy University of Belgrade, Yugoslavia Memorial University, Grenfell Campus, Corner Brook, Canada University of Lille 3, France Szent Istvan University, Hungary Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia Faculty of Business, Dublin Institute of Technology, Ireland Faculty of Economics, University of South Bohemia in Ceske Budejovice Deputy Head of Department of Business Economics, University of Economics and Management, Prague, Czech Republic 1

Norbert HAYDAM Constantin ROŞCA Hans ZWAGA Roxana CODITA Dumitru MIRON Valeriu IOAN-FRANC Iacob CĂTOIU Virgil BALAURE Gheorghe ORZAN Luigi DUMITRESCU Marius D. POP Petru FILIP

Ion VOICU SUCALA Virgil POPA Alexandru NEDELEA Olguța Anca ORZAN Ana-Maria PREDA Ovidiu FOLCUȚ Doinița CIOCÎRLAN Marius Dan DALOTĂ Mihai PAPUC Gheorghe ILIESCU Costel NEGRICEA Alexandru IONESCU Tudor EDU Olga POTECEA Oana PREDA Nicoleta DUMITRU Monica Paula RAȚIU Elisabeta Andreea BUDACIA

Faculty of Business, Marketing Department, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, South Africa President of Romanian Scientific Society of Management - SSMAR Kemi-Tornio University of Applied Sciences, Finland Technische Universität München, TUM School of Management Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest National Institute for Economic Research, Romanian Academy; Romanian Marketing Association; Romanian Distribution Committee Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca Dimitrie Cantemir University, Bucharest Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Management and Economic Engineering Department; University of Glasgow, UK, College of Social Sciences, School of Social & Political Sciences; Managing Editor, Review of Management and Economic Engineering Valahia University of Târgovişte Ştefan cel Mare University of Suceava Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy Bucharest Romanian-American University Romanian-American University Romanian-American University Romanian-American University Romanian-American University Romanian-American University Romanian-American University Romanian-American University Romanian-American University Romanian-American University Romanian-American University Romanian-American University Romanian-American University Romanian-American University

Associate Editors Diana SOCA Irina PURCĂREA Dan SMEDESCU Art Designer Director Alexandru BEJAN

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“Holistic Marketing Management” (A refereed journal published four times annually by the School of Management-Marketing of the Romanian-American University)

Volume 6, Issue 4, Year 2016

Contents

Theodor Valentin PURCĂREA - Editorial: Marketing Planning Methodology, Organizing for Marketing Transformation, and Ensuring Relevance and Consistency for Customers, while Understanding Emotional Nuance ……………………………………………………...……..4

Costel Iliuță NEGRICEA - Challenges for Digital Marketing Capabilities within the Context Ioan Matei PURCĂREA

of the Main Ongoing Marketing Management Trend…..…............8

Theodor PURCĂREA - A Holistic Approach of Revenue Management and its Relation to Agile Marketing. Tourist Experience in a Customer-Driven Era……16

Diana SOCA - Conferences Organized by the RAU School of Management-Marketing in October-December 2016………………………………………………………..28

Theodor PURCĂREA - The Latest Issue of our Partner Journal, „Marketing Science and Inspirations”, Vol. XI, 2016, Number 3, Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia…….………………………................................35

The responsibility for the contents of the scientific and the authenticity of the published materials and opinions expressed rests with the author.

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Editorial: Marketing planning methodology, organizing for marketing transformation, and ensuring relevance and consistency for customers, while understanding emotional nuance Three years ago, the reputed BCG attracted our attention on how Millennials are transforming Marketing (BCG’s research generalizations being considered useful in understanding the reciprocity principle in terms of reach, relevance, reputation, relation, and referral), what are the implications for Marketers (fewer organizational silos, new organizational capabilities and partnerships, more innovative media and tools), and how the traditional framework (company’s start by defining its brand’s positioning, benefits, and personality, and continuing its attempt to build awareness and customer loyalty by pushing then that image down to consumers) had become outdated. At the beginning of 2015, Peter Economy, a leadership expert and best-selling author, highlighted that Millennials (Generation Y, people born in the eighties and nineties) are now “firmly established in the workplace and a force to be reckoned with”, (Economy, 2015) while Generation Z (anyone born after 1993) is “beginning to show up on the radar screens of businesses around the world.” Some month later, on May 19, 2015, The Center for Generational Kinetics (the leader in generational research and solutions, especially with Millennials - aka Gen Y, and Gen Z - aka iGen), together with Barnum Financial Group, presented the latest findings on Millennial employee engagement and specific ways to increase Millennial employee performance. (Dorsey, Hiza, 2015) And on his website, Jason Dorsey (a bestselling Gen Y author at age 18; won Entrepreneur of the Year at age 25) shows that “iGen and Generation Z are fast on the heels of Millennials”.

And as we are at the end of this year, let’s remember an article posted on The Symphony Agency in September 2016, and entitled “How to Create Your 2017 Marketing Plan”, (Fernandez, 2016) which showed that in order to produce measurable results, you need a structured and effective 2017 plan by covering the following methodology: creating a succinct overview of the previous year’s performance (by uncover top performing channels - traditional, digital and other - and looking for opportunities to improve subpar results); collecting all performance metrics (by pulling basic information on digital performance from the Google Analytics account or from internal documentation collected during the sales process, call data with sources, e-commerce transaction data or customer surveys); what concerns marketing and advertising budget (if there isn’t a predetermined budget already), you have to consider your industry, business’s size, and growth stage, then to allocate this budget by category (traditional, digital and other, this last one being no more than 10% of the budgetary allocation, and relying progressively on for variable expenses and for budget flexibility, while the allocated funds for the traditional and digital initiatives being on the basis of the previous year of metrics).

But organizing for marketing transformation in the current digital era also presupposes to bring one customer experience (CX) along the complete customer journey, bridging the Holistic Marketing Management

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departmental silo’s, activating employees, and introducing new skill-sets, all of these on the basis of a proper organization structure organized by this customer journey, as shown in the figure below. (De Baere, 2016)

Figure 1: An example of an organization structure organized by the customer journey Source: De Baere, T., The CMO’s Guide to Digital Marketing Organization Structures, April 17, 2016, available at: http://www.b2bmarketingexperiences.com/2016/04/cmos-guide-digital-marketing-organization-structures/

On the other hand, it is important to consider the “TakeAways” offered recently by the reputed Ernan Roman, President of ERDM: to take into account the unprecedented consequences of the irrelevant marketing, and to prioritize getting to know customer’s individual preferences (given an Omni channel strategy at the basis of the true relevancy); to ensure relevance and consistency for your customers (by understanding how they shop your brand and their preferred touchpoints, and building ways to connect these touchpoints accordingly). (Roman, 2016) And as 20 years ago FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) was coined by Dr. Dan Herman (who first identified and named FoMO), Jeff Snyder (the chief inspiration officer and founder of Inspira Marketing) reminded us (Snyder, 2016) that at the level of April 2016 FOMO (n, informal) was defined as “fear of not being included in something (such as an interesting or enjoyable activity) that others are experiencing.” (Steinmetz, 2016) Snyder argues that you have to use FOMO responsibly, and identified three ways to turn customer envy into engagement: broadcast the show on social; get exclusive; send influencers to the party.

Today marketers are also facing a new challenge: Generation Z (shaped by the recession; borne with Facebook already in full action, with shopping from their smartphones; less trusting of brands; aware that Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube stars are paid to endorse products, and filtering information available at all times by digging into what brands really stand for, being Holistic Marketing Management

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very comfortable doing their research, and spending their money differently; penetrated by some of the anti-establishment sentiment, and trusting individuals more than big institutions; valuing highly authenticity and transparency; realistic about the challenges ahead; ultra-competitive, but very accepting; seeing the workplace as a battlefield, but being inclusive and tolerant of difference), with its different relationships compared with Millennials (the most collaborative generation), “seeming like oceans of separation when it comes to shared experiences.” (Segran, 2016) Not forgetting, of course, what a Millennial wrote in November this year that Millennials want to be treated like adults, normal people just doing their best to live in this complex world, respecting their social consciousness, and working with them to make the world a better place.

(O'Neil, 2016) The CEO of Periscope (a well-known independent Minneapolis-based ad agency), explained recently what marketers can learn from America’s election shock, (Ross, 2016) underlining, among other aspects, that it is important to stop using the word “consumer” because no one in the world simply consumes, all of us being complex humans who make choices every single day, and there is a real need to understand emotional nuance (we can rely on data in the absence of humanity), and apply gut-level knowledge and information (people are behind data points) based on conversations with real people at all costs.

And as the CMO at ThreatMetrix argued recently, (Najarian, 2016) today’s role of CMO is a lot more complex, to navigate the current ever-evolving digital and mobile-focused business landscape CMOs facing the challenge of optimizing operational processes and demonstrating measurable impact, being forced to think like a CFO, to align with sales, to hire creatively, to embrace account-based marketing (ABM), and to prioritize content, seizing the opportunity to serve as dynamic leaders.

Theodor Valentin Purcărea Editor – in – Chief References De Baere, T., The CMO’s Guide to Digital Marketing Organization Structures, April 17, 2016, available at: http://www.b2bmarketingexperiences.com/2016/04/cmos-guide-digital-marketing-organization-structures/ Dorsey, J., The Top 10 Millennials & Gen Y Questions Answered, available at: http://jasondorsey.com/millennials/the-top-gen-y-questions-answered/ Dorsey, J., Hiza, E., Unlocking Millennial Talent 2015. Brand New Insights For Employing The Fastest Growing Generation in the Workplace, Center for Generational Kinetics, Barnum Financial Group, May 19, 2015, available at: http://genhq.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Unlocking-Millennial-Talent-c-2015-The-Center-forGenerational-Kinetics.pdf Economy, P., 11 Things You Should Know About Generation Y, Jan 10, 2015, available at: http://www.inc.com/peter-economy/11-things-you-really-should-know-about-generation-y.html

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Fernandez, D., How to Create Your 2017 Marketing Plan, September 15th, 2016, available at: http://symphonipreview.com/symphony/how-to-create-a-2017-marketing-and-advertising-plan/ Najarian, A., 5 Steps to Success for Today’s CMOs, December 6, 2016, available at: http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/article/5-steps-success-todays-cmos/#utm_source=today-%40-targetmarketing&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=2016-1206&utm_content=5+steps+to+success+for+today%E2%80%99s+cmos-1 O'Neill, K., Four Ways to Market To Millennials (Without Underestimating or Patronizing Them), November 8, 2016, available at: http://www.marketingprofs.com/opinions/2016/31056/four-ways-to-market-to-millennialswithout-underestimating-or-patronizing-them?

Roman, E., Don’t Let Irrelevant Messaging Cause Your Customers to Leave. Learn What ULTA Is Doing, December 12, 2016, available at: http://ernanroman.blogspot.ro/2016/12/dont-let-irrelevant-messaging-cause-yourcustomers-to-leave-learn-what-ulta-is-doing.html Ross, L., What Marketers Can Learn From America's Election Shock. Data is great, but it doesn't explain emotion, November 22, 2016, available at: http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/what-marketers-can-learnamerica-s-election-shock-174778 Snyder, J., Operation FOMO: Three Ways to Turn Customer Envy Into Engagement, December 16, 2016, available at: http://www.marketingprofs.com/articles/2016/31288/operation-fomo-three-ways-to-turn-customer-envy-intoengagement?

Steinmetz, K., Merriam-Webster Adds ‘FOMO,’ ‘Mx.’ and About 2,000 Other Words, April 20, 2016, available at: http://time.com/4299634/merriam-webster-fomo-mx-dox-update/ Segran, E., Your Guide To Generation Z: The Frugal, Brand-Wary, Determined Anti-Millennials, 09.08.16, https://www.fastcompany.com/3066169/robot-revolution/the-toy-robot-sensation-that-time-forgot *** How Millennials Are Changing the Face of Marketing Forever. How Millennials Are Transforming Marketing, available at: https://www.bcgperspectives.com/content/articles/marketing_center_consumer_customer_insight_how_millennials_ changing_marketing_forever/?chapter=3 *** How Millennials Are Changing the Face of Marketing Forever. Implications for Marketers, available at: https://www.bcgperspectives.com/content/articles/marketing_center_consumer_customer_insight_how_millennials_ changing_marketing_forever/?chapter=4 *** How Millennials Are Changing the Face of Marketing Forever. The Reciprocity Principle, available at: https://www.bcgperspectives.com/content/articles/marketing_center_consumer_customer_insight_how_millennials_ changing_marketing_forever/?chapter=2#chapter2 *** http://genhq.com/about-the-center-for-generational-kinetics/ *** http://jasondorsey.genysales.com/millennials/? *** The Fear of Missing Out, available at: http://fomofearofmissingout.com/dan-herman

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Challenges for digital marketing capabilities within the context of the main ongoing marketing management trend Dr. Costel Iliuță NEGRICEA Ioan Matei PURCĂREA Abstract It is well-known what a beginning and end for a digital strategy means, and to what are customers responding most positively, and also that there are new disciplines and innovations supporting digital business, and that there is a bridge between human and technology enabling new business models. As digital is a dynamic marketing function, there is a real need to build digital marketing capabilities, including digital strategy, social media, and mobile marketing activities, considering the impact on performance of digital practices, and understanding convergence of market-oriented behaviors associated with the usages and purchases of goods or services. And as digital transformation is the main ongoing marketing management trend, it is important to see not only how the growth within this transformation is fueled, but also the link between challenges and key drivers of this transformation, and to understand how to better approach the personalized marketing.

Keywords: Customer Experience; Digital Marketing Capability; Digital Transformation, Marketing Technology; Personalized Marketing JEL Classification: L86; M15; M31; O33

The difference between a good and a great customer experience: reacting to live feedback from real customers According to McKinsey’s representatives, a crucial way to ensure that digital strategies (which begin and end with understanding customers’ thinking along every step of their decision journey and working accordingly to meet those expectations) pay off is pairing back-end analytics and digital expertise with the right people out on the front lines. This involves spending significantly more time and money on sales-force training (fast-growing companies use digital tools and analytics to empower salespeople to work more effectively and efficiently) who can integrate the information and insights (concerning customers’ unmet needs and how they use the web, from searching sites to browsing on apps) extracted from various sources. (Hatami, Mahdavian, Valdivieso de Uster, and Yee, 2016) A McKinsey research of distinctive customer experience (CX) in financial services analyzed the series of interactions a customer has with a brand to complete a task in banking and insurance, (Dias, Ionutiu, Lhuer, and van Ouwerkerk, 2016) revealing that by digitizing complete journeys the financial services providers can significantly improve CX, digital-first journeys leading to higher customer-satisfaction scores and generating more satisfaction than traditional journeys (see figure below). One of the four pillars of distinctive customer journeys identified by this research was that it is important to Holistic Marketing Management

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continuing after mastering these digital-first journeys. It was underlined, among other aspects, that low cycle times alone (journey times being cut back given the digitization of processes involved) don’t equate to superior CX, customers responding most positively to the ease of a transaction or process.

Figure 1: Digital-first players generate higher customer satisfaction Source: Dias, KJ., Ionutiu, O., Lhuer, X., and van Ouwerkerk, J., The four pillars of distinctive customer journeys, McKinsey & Company, September 2016

From emerging tech trends to important steps in developing digital marketing capability A Gartner analyst (one of the authors of Gartner’s “Hype Cycle” report on emerging tech trends, published on 19 July 2016; Gartner hype cycles tracking the maturation of a wide swath of technologies from market noise to mainstream adoption), Betsy Burton: described in September this year, on the occasion of a webinar, the technologies as the foundation of digital business 2.0, the digital business technologies (like wearables, block chain, 3D printing and the Internet of Things) moving beyond the initial hype, beginning to see new disciplines and innovations supporting digital business in a more effective way; together with her fellow analyst Mike Walker (a co-author of the above mentioned report), framed the emerging tech hype cycle in IT terms, pointing to three “macro” trends (the need of CIOs and IT leaders to help create more dynamic, seamless experiences for customers; half of the equation is the experience, the other half being intelligence; the bridge between human and technology is the platform both enabling new business models, and helping companies scale digital business up and out.

(Laskowski, 2016) As digital is not an IT function, but a dynamic marketing function, the CMO Survey approached the challenging issue of “Driving toward the Digital Marketing Organization”, Holistic Marketing Management

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(Moorman, 2016) by creating a matrix that crosses marketing capability importance and organizations’ biggest gaps in marketing capabilities as shown in the figure below:

Figure 2: Marketing capability importance by organizational gaps Source: (Figure 8.5. from CMO Survey, August 2016, p.54) Moorman, C., Driving toward the Digital Marketing Organization, October 24, 2016, retrieved on 25.10.2016, from: https://cmosurvey.org/uncategorized/driving-toward-digital-marketing-organization/

Christine Moorman (Director of The CMO Survey and the T. Austin Finch, Sr. Professor of Business Administration, The Fuqua School of Business, Duke University) highlighted, considering the above mentioned ranking made by the marketing leaders asked within the CMO Survey (2956 top U.S. marketers at for-profit companies; 427 responded for a 14.4% response rate; Email contact with four follow-up reminders; Survey in field from July 12, 2016 -August 1, 2016; 94.9% of respondents VP-level or above), eight important steps covering both underdeveloped digital marketing capability and necessary to be emphasized areas: building digital marketing capabilities around the customer, developing digital capabilities not just digital strategies, hiring and training digital experts, bolting digital into the fabric of the organization, integrating marketing strategy and digital strategies, demonstrating the impact of digital spend, driving digital actions against marketing goals, not confining digital to its own department.

Allow us to remember that according to this CMO Survey from August 2016 digital marketing capabilities (including digital strategy, social media, and mobile marketing activities) got ranking number 3 – considering rank order of most important marketing capabilities to an U.S. organization (where brand, customer, and digital-related capabilities are ranked most important), and raking number 1 – considering top gaps in an U.S. organization’s marketing capabilities (where digital tops company gaps in marketing capabilities, ahead of: customer development and management capabilities; marketing innovation capabilities; brand development and management capabilities; marketing analytics capabilities; customer focus capabilities; creative capabilities; agency management capabilities), while digital marketing, from the viewpoint of how marketing analytics is driving marketing decision making (this Holistic Marketing Management

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question being asked for the first time in February this year), got ranking number 3 (where customer insight, customer acquisition, and digital marketing are ranked most important).

Interactive behaviors, the main ongoing marketing management trend, and personalized marketing In the opinion of McKinsey’s representatives, like B2C companies, B2B companies (considering their overall digital maturity) can create long-term value by focusing on the right digital practices. McKinsey’s research revealed six digital practices having an outsize impact on performance: commitment to digital at a strategic level; creation of consistent experiences online and off; use of data to enable and empower the sales force; end-to-end connection of processes to improve insight and decision making; creation of a culture anchored on innovation and execution; willingness to shake up the organizational structure and metrics to support digital aspirations. (Catlin, Harrison, Plotkin, and Stanley, 2016) What presupposes the ability to take the right approach to digitization, including identifying which skills need to be reallocated.

In today’s evolving digital economy, B2C or B2B companies, in order to keep pace with, need to rethink their market strategies by considering digital transformation and understanding how market-oriented behaviors are transforming. (Zambito, 2016) Tony Zambito (who established in 2002 the first buyer persona development methodology designed specifically for B2B Marketing and Sales) attracted the attention on the unprecedented convergence of marketoriented behaviors associated with the usages and purchases of goods or services, and identified four behavioral areas converging and being impacted in the same time: (market) organizational behaviors; buying behaviors (becoming both self-directed, and more goal-directed); usage behaviors (also considering elements of emotions and experience tied to active usage); (digital) interactive behaviors (consumer and business behaviors being reshaped by mobile, cloud, social platforms, data analytics, and artificial intelligence).

There is no doubt that only by understanding customers changing needs, wants and characteristics a company’s devising marketing plans and campaigns should always start, as the prestigious Dave Chaffey showed in September 2016, (Chaffey, 2016) who also reminded us: the main Marketing Technology options across the customer lifecycle defined by him in the valuable “RACE” digital planning framework (see the figure 3 below); eight key Marketing Techniques which are essential both for individual marketers to develop skills, and for businesses to manage today (see the figure 4 below).

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Figure 3: Essential digital marketing tools Source: Chaffey, D., Digital Marketing Trends 2016 – 2017, September 8, 2016

Figure 4: Digital experiences Source: Chaffey, D., Digital Marketing Trends 2016 – 2017, September 8, 2016

On the other hand, Chaffey also argued, among other aspects, that digital transformation (defined as the integration of digital marketing activities and technologies into wider marketing Holistic Marketing Management

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and business activities to create a digital business), is the main ongoing marketing management trend, the growth in this digital transformation being fueled by many of the changes in adoption of mobile and digital devices.

It is also worth taking a look at the challenges of digital transformation according to digital strategists/executives in North America and Western Europe, April 2016 (revealed by Altimeter and Phronesis Partners, which surveyed 528 strategists and executives across various industries). As we can see (eMarketer, 2016) from the figure 6 below, 71% of respondents underlined the challenge of understanding behavior or effect of a new customer, while from the figure 7 below, we can see that evolving customer behaviors and preferences was underlined by 55% of respondents as being the main key driver of digital transformation.

Figure 6: Challenges of digital transformation according to digital strategists/executives in North America and Western Europe, April 2016 Source: eMarketer, Key Drivers of Digital Transformation Are Also Key Challenges, October 5, 2016

In other words, also considering the other challenges and key drivers of digital transformation, it is easy to notice a resemblance between some of them. And this looks like an invitation to keeping up the progress already achieved, to accelerate the process of adapting company culture for digital technology, and of gaining digital maturity.

Figure 6: Key drivers of digital transformation according to digital strategists/executives in North America and Western Europe, April 2016 Source: eMarketer, Key Drivers of Digital Transformation Are Also Key Challenges, October 5, 2016 Holistic Marketing Management

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In today’s digital world it is especially important to understand that acting on behavioral data (by grouping customers with similar behaviors and needs, and by understanding the customer journey for each segment given to the integration of information from internal and external sources) is considered to be the foundation of personalization, (Gregg, Kalaoui, Maynes, and Schuler, 2016) the basis of 1:1 personalization being formed by the combination of segments and customer journeys (numerous “microsegments” evaluated and prioritized based on relative value). Within the framework of personalized marketing, companies respond to customers’ signals with relevant and timely messages (so-called “triggers” - images, copy, titles, and offers combined so as to match a specific situation) sent to the individual customer. McKinsey’s representatives underlined a company’s need: first, of using a test-and-learn process (sending an initial message, evaluating the results, altering the trigger, and measuring the results again) in order to get the full value from these messages, this kind of approach being started with the socalled “war-room teams”, small groups of 8-15 carefully selected people (including a campaign manager and staff from creative, digital media, analytics, operations, and IT), who dedicate fulltime to this “war room” launching (while using the right automation technology, and guiding the evolution of the tech stack) one to two new triggers per week at the beginning of the process; then, of investing in the automation and institutionalization of such new ways of working across the whole company over time.

Instead of Conclusions In summer 2014, a representative of Marketo (Balderaz, 2014) argued that: the distinction between offline and digital marketing has become practically irrelevant, being necessary to understand the complementarity of different marketing channels; marketing (which should be integrated) means results: conversions, sales and leads.

This involves, in our opinion, reacting to live feedback from real customers, understanding emerging tech trends, and making important steps in developing digital marketing capability, stimulating interactive behaviors within the evolution of digital transformation.

References Balderaz, B., The 4 Things Digital Marketers are Missing, July 1, 2014, retrieved on 01.12.2016, from: http://blog.marketo.com/2014/07/the-4-things-digital-marketers-are-missing.html Catlin, T., Harrison, L., Plotkin, C.L., and Stanley, J., How B2B digital leaders drive five times more revenue growth than their peers, October 2016, retrieved on 10.10.2016, from: http://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/marketing-and-sales/our-insights/how-b2b-digitalleaders-drive-five-times-more-revenue-growth-than-their-peers?cid=other-eml-alt-mip-mck-oth1610

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Chaffey, D., Digital Marketing Trends 2016 – 2017, September 8, 2016, retrieved on 28.11.2016, from: http://www.smartinsights.com/managing-digital-marketing/marketing-innovation/digitalmarketing-trends-2016-2017/ Dias, KJ., Ionutiu, O., Lhuer, X., and van Ouwerkerk, J., The four pillars of distinctive customer journeys, McKinsey & Company, September 2016, retrieved on 13.09.2016, from: http://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/digital-mckinsey/our-insights/the-four-pillars-ofdistinctive-customer-journeys?cid=other-eml-alt-mip-mck-oth-1609 Gregg, B., Kalaoui, H., Maynes, J., and Schuler, G., Marketing’s Holy Grail: Digital personalization at scale, November 2016, retrieved on 19.11.2016, from: http://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/digital-mckinsey/our-insights/marketings-holygrail-digital-personalization-at-scale?

Hatami, H., Mahdavian, M., Valdivieso de Uster, M., and Yee, L., What sales executives need to get right for digital success, McKinsey & Company, August 2016, retrieved on 14.09.2016, from: http://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/digital-mckinsey/our-insights/what-salesexecutives-need-to-get-right-for-digital-success Laskowski., N., Emerging tech trends point to new era of digital business, 22 Aug 2016, retrieved on 13.09.2016, from: http://searchcio.techtarget.com/blog/TotalCIO/Emerging-techtrends-point-to-new-era-of-digital-business Moorman, C., Driving Toward The Digital Marketing Organization, October 24, 2016, retrieved on 25.10.2016, from: https://cmosurvey.org/uncategorized/driving-toward-digital-marketingorganization/ Zambito, T., Rethinking Market Strategy In A Digital Economy, retrieved on 01.11.2016, from: http://customerthink.com/rethinking-market-strategy-in-a-digital-economy/? *** CMO Survey Report: Highlights and Insights, Aug 2016, from: https://cmosurvey.org/wpcontent/uploads/sites/11/2016/08/The_CMO_Survey-Highlights_and_Insights-Aug-2016.pdf *** Key Drivers of Digital Transformation Are Also Key Challenges, October 5, 2016, eMarketer, retrieved on 21.11.2016, from: https://www.emarketer.com/Article/Key-Drivers-ofDigital-Transformation-Also-Key-Challenges/1014561?

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A Holistic Approach of Revenue Management and its Relation to Agile Marketing.

Tourist Experience in a Customer-Driven Era Theodor Purcărea Abstract Harmonizing Marketing and Revenue Management within today’s constantly shifting environment is a real challenge, both hotel’s marketers and revenue managers beginning to better understanding that revenue optimization is everyone’s business, and improving tourist decision journeys with Agile Marketing is a must within the current business environment in which marketing shifted from the business of communications to the business of experiences. New capabilities including new talent in agile development are necessary in our digital era, as the new name of the marketing game is Agility, and the Agile management methods offer organizations a proper way of transforming the current changes in opportunities. That is why it is important to have a clear picture of what means Agile in the marketing context, knowing the starting point of all tourist activities, the role of the accumulated tourist experience, and the promise of customer experience management, and better understanding tourists’ behavior and motivations in today’s Omni channel world.

Keywords: Revenue Management; Agile Marketing; Tourist Experience Management JEL Classification: L83; M31; O33

Under the pressure of ensuring coordination and optimization of all business functions within a constantly shifting environment In February 2010, a reputed representative of Xotels (hotel yield consulting experts specialized in growing hotel results through innovative revenue management strategies) argued that in the hospitality industry something is missing when wanting to see how every booking affects the Gross Operating Profit (GOP). He started from the fact that after the Revenue Management (which started with the airline industry, then being applied in many more industries: hotels, car rental, train companies, theatres, cinema, restaurants etc.) 0phenomenon hit this industry all representatives shifted from measuring the performance of the hotel based on occupancy and Average Daily Rate (ADR, a KPI to calculate the average price or rate for each hotel room sold for a specific day) to REVPAR (Rooms Revenue per Available Rooms), the keyword nowadays being GOPPAR (Gross Operating Profit per Available Rooms). (Landman, 2010) As the difference between GOPPAR and REVPAR is all the operational costs of the hotel, in order to better understand the results from a hotel’s pricing, contracting and distribution strategies, Xotels proposed to implement another KPI: NREVPAR (Net Rooms Revenue per Available Room, where NREV = Rooms Revenue -/- Distribution Cost, Transaction Fee & Travel Agency Commissions; while ProfPAR indicates the profit earnings for each room available in the hotel, accounting for movements in both revenues and expenses).

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On the other hand, it is also worth remembering from the very beginning that the experienced Vice President of Industry Strategy for the Leisure, Travel and Hospitality practice at JDA Software clearly showed: how vital the communication between Revenue Management and Sales is within the context of the constant push-pull between rates and occupancy in any hotel; what can Revenue Management do for Sales, and what can Sales do for Revenue Management; how important is to impartially resolve the conflicts between Revenue Management and Sales, considering both REVPAR and total profitability. (Kotrba, n.d.) Later, in 2015, another experienced specialist, President & CEO, HSMAI (The Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International, a global organization of Sales, Marketing, and Revenue Management professionals representing all segments of the hospitality industry), underlined the need to harmonize Marketing, Sales and Revenue Management in order to continue to compete smart, considering: Intermediation, Integration, Digital, and Big Data. (Gilbert, 2015) According to HSMAI, it was in the 1980s when the initiatives in revenue management by hotel groups and hospitality vendors started.

Beyond the history of Revenue Management (as “the application of disciplined analytics that predict consumer behaviour at the micro-market level and optimize product availability and price to maximize revenue growth” – according to Wikipedia), it is important to note that the best approach of Revenue Management (RM) so as to work consistently across all business functions is a continuous challenge, within the pressure of ensuring coordination and optimization of all business functions. Two years ago, a 25-year airline veteran and industry consultant in revenue optimization (Bacon, 2014) wrote about the frequently asked questions of RM and the real need to take a new look at the organisational solution for RM and its relation to other departments. He started from the fact that in an airline, in terms of number of employees, sales/marketing/distribution and operations are the two largest functions, while RM (like airline planning) tends to have far fewer employees compared to the mentioned two main departments with which it has important interactions. And he revealed the “big picture” of the RM’s new organisational links (as shown in the figure below), arguing how important is to deploy all of the adequate mechanisms to keep RM, sales/marketing/distribution, ancillary (incorporating ancillary revenue directly into RM’s revenue optimisation routines; new opportunities for personalisation/customization representing another implication of the new ancillary fee structure), e-commerce (capitalising on the new upsell opportunities of ancillary through online merchandising), and mobile (as subset of e-commerce affording greater opportunity for close-in bookings, new opportunities for upsell at the last minute, and new customer engagement) all working together.

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Figure 1: The “big picture” of the RM’s new organisational links Source: Bacon T., Rethinking the organisation of revenue management: time for a fresh look, EyeforTravel, Jan 23, 2014

Also two years ago, another experienced specialist, (Bartnick, 2014) Senior Hospitality Consultant at IDeaS (a SAS Company), argued that: there is enough room for marketers (charged with the task of connecting directly with consumers to generate demand, being well placed to know which customers they need to communicate with to fill the empty space) and revenue managers (charged with the task of controlling demand through profitable pricing strategies, being able to say the exact position of areas of priority for demand generation) to take working together to a new level so as to raise hotel profits, by bringing significant improvements in being able to attract the right guest at the right price; the traditional thinking of the hotel operators is challenged by the evolution of the booking patterns (for example, within the context of the rise and heightening reliance on mobile devices and the social media apps offered on these devices); a huge area of potential for both hotel teams (marketing and revenue management) is for example is by jointly working through social media (as the reviews and price are the most important influencers of choice), using the analysis of what social media sentiment exists for the hotel to understand how it is affecting demand and how pricing might be adjusted accordingly, and monitoring the social media standing of their competitors compared to their own (going beyond relying on only studying competitor hotel rates) so that can inform pricing, being wellknown that today’s travelers are very easy comparing hotel rates across multiple channels and booking their own travels thanks to their mobile devices and online apps (driving practically the hotel booking environment). Bartnick (who studied Hotel and Tourism Management in Holistic Marketing Management

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Switzerland and Australia, started his hotel career at Accor in Washington DC as a Management graduate in Front Office Operations, furthering then his reach hotel experience in various operational roles in the UK) also highlighted the importance: of this kind of jointly working including at the level of investigating which online forums hotel guests commonly use (Facebook, Twitter, email, TripAdvisor etc.) and quickly targeting with personalised marketing messages the channels when gaps in demand arise; (in order to thrive) of generating demand, digital distribution and revenue by converging marketing and revenue management activities, and accessing and exploiting any information that might prove helpful at any point in time.

In June 2015, an online revenue optimization course for hospitality professionals – “RO2Win” (that trains a team to optimize every opportunity to increase hotel revenue) – was introduced by the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International and the Institute for Hospitality and Tourism Education and Research at Florida International University, this multimedia online course (an affordable program used before, during or after other development programs) engaging participants with the essential concepts of Revenue Optimization and demonstrating how everyone in a hotel contributes to profitability. (HSMAI, 2015) In the opinion of the Dean of FIU Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management this course (putting the course participant in the revenue manager’s seat) was developed to fill a critical need in the industry, because potential revenue-generating opportunities are overlooked in too many instances (revenue optimization being everyone’s business).

In September this year, Xotels showed that in order to be able to properly apply revenue management at a hotel it is necessary both to review a number of reports (which are monitored on a daily basis so as to ensure a correct pricing strategy), and to take the following actions: event or demand calendar; day by day on the books information, pick-up, demand and revenue insight for your property; pick-up pace information by market segment and sales or distribution channels; competitor rate shops; group and transient demand management tools; forecasts and budgets; past, current and future performance, compared to budgets; smart indicators to see how each of these elements are behaving in an understandable overview; algorithms to combine all data and provide forecasts and actionable yield information; easy-to-use information that allow you to make smart revenue management decisions quick, easy and efficient; key performance indicators with insight for owners, general managers, staff departments and other property stakeholders. Xotels’s Revenue Management Solution (in partnership with Busy Rooms) – “Hotel Scienz” (a user friendly cloud based hotel yield system) – is a combination of a dashboard (for key property stakeholders; easy to understand without training) and a revenue management software (for those that need to understand daily fluctuations and make actual pricing decisions).

This Xotels’s Revenue Management Solution can be used by independent hotels, hostels and by hotel groups, because it is a multi-property capable solution using continuously evolving algorithms. Based on both in-house and external data, Xotels’s Hotel Scienz platform not only offers a clear overview of a hotel current status and simplifies this hotel yield decisions and Holistic Marketing Management

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strategies, but also shows strategic insights and detailed overviews of hotel’s revenue management performance, analysis and action items. The platform also shows crucial information about property sales indicators and demand trends.

Improving tourist decision journeys with Agile Marketing In April this year the predictions that 2016 will be the year of the agile marketer were confirmed by the survey results from Wrike’s “How Marketers Get Things Done: The State of Agile Marketing in 2016”, which revealed that: from 803 US-based marketers, 63.4% are already using at least some aspects of Agile methods (the movement being still in its infancy, and a lack of training or knowledge about Agile approaches being considered the main obstacle preventing full agile adoption); respondents are using mixed Agile Marketing methodologies (Scrum, with 13.8%, isn’t the default approach for new agile practitioners, the clear leader in agile methods currently in use becoming Lean, with 29.7%, followed by Kanban, with 24.5%, and Scrumban, with 14.5%); unfortunately, there is a the low adoption rates for social media (15%) and content marketing (11%) roles, while the adoption rate for marketing operations is 21%. (Fryrear, 2016) As also shown before in our “Holistic Marketing Management” Journal, (Vishwanath Iyer, 2015) Scrumban is a combination of Kanban with Scrum in order to achieve better results by introducing the Kanban board for Agile and listing down the tasks as per priority with the task owner and so on (with certain specified advantages).

On the other hand, in February this year, the reputed Scott Brinker highlighted that marketing has shifted from the business of communications to the business of experiences (these last ones being given to prospects and customers along all the touchpoints communicating company’s brand), which are mediated by software in today’s digital world. (Brinker, 2016) And as shown by BCG’s representatives in October 2015, (Visser, Field, and Sheerin, 2015) given this today’s digital reality marketing organizations must become more agile in order to quickly adapt to rapidly changing conditions. What presupposes new capabilities including new talent in agile development (together with big data for consumer insight, marketingeffectiveness analytics, programmatic buying, branded content, marketing innovation, agency management), by using agile techniques (borrowed from the software development world) to speed up the development of initiatives and timelines, consciously developing greater agility throughout the organization by implementing structural changes such as: centralizing the right activities; creating the right structure; redefining roles and talent management. It is worth remembering that in December 2012, on the occasion of the presentation given at the ITSMA’s annual marketing conferencing on the topics of agile marketing and the rise of marketing technologists (two of his favorite subjects), Scott Brinker argued that one of the 5 meta-trends (The Great Migration to Digital; From Media Silos to Converged Media; From Communications to Experiences; The Technologification of Marketing; Agile Marketing) in modern marketing (underlined by him in 2012) is Agile Marketing as “a fundamental shift in the process of managing marketing, moving from rigid planning to more adaptive and incremental agile Holistic Marketing Management

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iterations”, easily adapting along the way and becoming really effective at test-and-learn experimentation.

According to Simple’s approach of Agile (Simple’s marketing workflow management platform works for traditional and agile marketing work processes), for example, Agile marketing (which can work for teams that are not co-located) help marketers prioritize, improve measurability and higher productivity, also providing a transparent process for addressing dayto-day requests, driving long-term strategy with a smaller number of projects which are reviewed once completed. (Simple, n.d.) In 2012, Prairie Sky Group identified a “Problem with Marketing” and recommended the Agile Marketing Solution, outlining the basic process (see below), and considering both the benefits of Agile Marketing (organizational, for marketing, and for personnel), and best practices for Agile Marketing. (Stocking, 2012)

Figure 2: Starting and conducting an Agile Marketing Sprint (the picked project being accelerated through the Marketing Sprint) Source: Stocking, H.L., The “Problem with Marketing” and the Agile Marketing Solution, Prairie Sky Group, 2012, retrieved on 25.11.2016, from: The-Problem-with-Marketing-and-the-Agile-Marketing-Solution

It is worth underlining that projects or tasks (also known as a story) are managed as you can see above - in the case of “Scrum” (Scrum framework consists of self-organized and crossfunctional teams and their associated roles, events, artifacts, and rules, these Scrum Teams consisting of a Product Owner, the Development Team, and a Scrum Master, targeting optimizing predictability and control risk, while considering transparency, inspection, and adaptation) (Schwaber and Sutherland, 2016) - through so called “sprints” (fixed-length iterations of work including: sprint planning, daily scrum/stand ups, sprint reviews, and sprint retrospectives), while “Kanban” is focused on continuous releases (in this last case for marketing being also four main project management components: columns or lanes, work in progress/WIP limits, and continuous releases). (Drumond, 2016) At the March 2016 MarTech conference in San Francisco, in a MarTech session on agile marketing, Shubu Mitra, director of connection planning effectiveness and productivity for Coca-Cola, stated that as the new name of the marketing game is Agility (the rapid change being Holistic Marketing Management

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driven by technology, a huge part of marketing today being represented by digital) marketing organizations must be ready to modify their plans. The program chair for this MarTech conference, the reputed Scott Brinker (author of the book “Hacking Marketing: Agile Practices to Make Marketing Smarter, Faster, and More Innovative”, Wiley, April 2016), argued that in contrast with the classic management methods (emphasizing long-cycle, top-down planning, and for which change is an enemy disrupting this planning) the Agile management methods offer organizations a framework to detect and adapt to the current rapid changes, and adjusting incrementally their strategy based on real-world feedback, transforming these changes in opportunities. (Martin, 2016) Seven months later, at the beginning of December this year, McKinsey’s representatives pictured what means Agile in the marketing context, (Edelman, , Heller, and Spittaels, 2016) for agile marketing to work being necessary a number of prerequisites: a clear sense of what the organization wants to accomplish, sufficient data, analytics, and the right kind of marketingtechnology infrastructure in place; sponsorship and stewardship of the shift to agile by senior marketing leaders; a small team of talented people who can work together at speed, full time, and being collocated in a so-called “war room”, as you can see below:

Figure 3: The makeup of an agile war-room team Source: Edelman, D., Heller, J., and Spittaels, S., Agile marketing: A step-by-step guide, November 2016, retrieved on 09.12.2016, from: http://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/marketing-and-sales/our-insights/agilemarketing-a-step-by-step-guide?

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In the opinion of the above mentioned McKinsey’s representatives an agile team works by aligning with leadership and sets team expectations, analyzing the data to identify the opportunities, designing and prioritizing tests, running tests, iterating the idea based on results, and scaling across the organization (beginning with building credibility). They recommend not adding new agile teams until the latest one is operating effectively, each of them being tightly focused on a specific company’s business goal, product, or service.

Paraphrasing what the President and Founder of VisionEdge Marketing shown recently, we think that in the tourism and hospitality industry (considered as being always among the first businesses to capitalize on new technologies) it is the right time: to make marketing agile requiring data and timing information with the help of scenarios effectively used and incorporated into company’s planning, clarifying first the issues which are key for marketing and identifying the key uncertainties; then, after incorporating the constructed scenarios into company’s planning, to explore the combined impact of various identified uncertainties, and identify (among numerous possible outcomes company is trying to produce) patterns and clusters in order to improve company’s ability to predict and adjust more quickly, (Patterson, 2016) as also suggested by BCG’s representatives, the reputed author of the “Rise of the Marketing Technologist”, (Brinker, 2010) and other above mentioned sources.

The challenge of making significant contributions to the tourist experience The authors of the so-called “experience economy” described the consumer experience as consisting of four realms (4Es: educational, escapist, esthetic, and entertainment) forming quadrants positioned along two matrices of experience: the horizontally placed consumer participation (passive or active) and the vertically positioned consumer connection (absorption or immersion, immersion being described as becoming physically or virtually part of the event or performance itself, while absorption being engaging the attention of the consumer’s mind) (Pine & Gilmore, 1998, 1999), the active participation being “where customers personally affect the performance or event that yields the experience,” while the passive one being “where customers do not directly affect or influence the performance” (Pine & Gilmore, 1999). These authors also argued that the consumption experiences incorporating all the above mentioned four dimensions lead to stronger memories and subsequent positive evaluations. (Gilmore & Pine, 2002) On the other hand, other authors identified memorable tourist experiences to be composed of positivity, engagement with others, and acquisition of new knowledge (Arnould & Price, 1993; Kim, 2010; Tung & Ritchie, 2011).

It has been largely recognized over time by reputed specialists that: the starting point of all tourist activities is tourist motivation which represents the underlying reason for people engaging in tourism; the accumulated tourist experience is impacting the travel career (alongside the context and the outcome of this experience), the concept of travel career being developed from Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and suggesting a direct relationship between transformation in motivation and context (including the individual tourist’s personal context, considering Holistic Marketing Management

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individual circumstances and collective influences). (Smed, 2012) On the other hand, it is known that: the promise of customer experience management (CXM, whose primary focus is customer engagement by positive word-of-mouth, social media influence, referrals, survey response rates, community participation, co-innovation etc.) is ongoing growth (which is fueled by innovation that customers want to reward), customer lifetime value (according to a press release of Forrester Research from June 21, 2016 – “Customer Experience Drives Increased Revenue Growth”) being a guiding factor in managing business; customers’ ultimate reason to renew their purchases is ease the absence of frustrations, any part of the customer experience journey being an opportunity for value creation. (Hunsaker, n.d.)

Understanding tourists’ behavior and motivations by gaining insights into their motivations to buy and engage post-sale is considered to be vital to the success of a CXM strategy built on feedback from the environment in which these customers are operating, Marketing and Revenue Management departments being challenged to gather, review and act on insight data, by using the right tools and technology so as to do it in real time. (SDL, 2014) And as defining and refining customer experience (CX) is an ongoing process, it is important to create and update a CX map to optimize touch points (shopping, onboarding, bill payment, service support etc., considering of course today’s Omni channel world), in order to align process, policy, technology, and tourism organization with the needs and preferences of its target tourists.

(KPMG, 2011) Coming back to the reputed representative of Xotels, it is also worth mentioning that he attracted the attention, among other issues, to the fact that “Experiences Sell, Package It Up”.

(Landman, n.d.) He started from the fact that as OTA (Online Travel Agency) hotels, for example, are being marginalized to a commodity (selling rooms and rates), on a hotel website it is necessary to put the uniqueness of that hotel in the spotlight by both ensuring potential bookers visiting the myhotel.com the feeling of truly experiencing this hotel, and of living a sensation of what it would be like to visit this destination. Which involves creating niche tailored hotel packages and offers (such as, for instance: Weekend Break, Summer Vacation, Spa Offer, Romantic Escape, Pre-Cruise Package, Cruise & Parking Offer, City with Family/Kids) that cater to the different client segments or target markets. The same reputed representative of Xotels mentioned before on another occasion that for hoteliers it is a balancing act between selling rooms through their own direct channels and using the help of third party websites, wholesalers OTA’s.

Conclusions As argued in the last two years in our “Holistic Marketing Management” Journal: digitization is transforming indeed the way industry functions from supply chains to production to customer experience, being not an easy task to apply the many digital channels and technologies to a business; (Negricea and Purcarea, 2016) by better understanding the difference between change and transformation, and integrating people, technology and best practices, marketing organizations can achieve a complete customer view, and deliver real-time Holistic Marketing Management

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experiences accordingly; (Negricea and Purcarea, 2016) as the digital revolution changed the way tourists shop for travel products and interact with brands, digitization steadily becoming the main pathway for tourists journeys, tourism businesses are challenged to use digital marketing techniques in their practices and to right track consumer activity across channels and devices; (Ratiu and Purcarea, 2015) in full mobile revolution there is a continuous test-and-learn loop, attracting online shoppers, increasing conversion rates, and having data mining tools to assess customer choices and understand the customer’s preferences and booking patterns; (Ratiu and Purcarea, 2015) within the context of monitoring travel and digital trends and ensuring an adequate experience across all channels and interactions, of reaching travelers through digital marketing channels and viewing marketing ROI in terms of lifetime value of the customer, it is important for hotels to adopt an integrated approach to Revenue Management so as to effectively manage distribution channels. (Ratiu and Purcarea, 2015) There is no doubt that in today’s Omni channel world the new name of the marketing game is Agility, and hotel’s marketers and revenue managers must jointly work to effectively manage distribution channels, ensuring coordination and optimization of all business functions, being guided by the tourist lifetime value.

References Arnould, E., & Price, L. (1993). River magic: Extraordinary experience and the extended service encounter. Journal of Consumer Research, 20(1), 24–45, Kim, J. (2010). Development of a scale to measure memorable tourism experiences. European Journal Of Tourism Research, 3(2), 123-126, and Tung, V.W.S., & Richie, J.R.B. (2011). Exploring the essence of memorable tourism experiences. Annals of Tourism Research, 48(4), 1367-1386, cited by Leigh Quadri, D. in An experience economy analysis of tourism development along the Chautauqua-Lake Erie Wine Trail, 2012, pp. 27-29, retrieved from: http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3450&context=etd Bacon T., Rethinking the organisation of revenue management: time for a fresh look, Jan 23, 2014, retrieved on 10.11.2016, from: http://www.eyefortravel.com/revenue-and-data-management/rethinkingorganisation-revenue-management-time-fresh-look Bartnick, F., Changing With the Times: The Need for Hotel Marketing and Revenue Management to Converge, 25 apr. 2014, retrieved on 10.11.2016, from: http://www.hospitalitynet.org/news/4065020.html Brinker, S., Marketing as UX incarnate, with agile and lean principles, February 16, retrieved on 11.11.2016, from: http://chiefmartec.com/2015/02/marketing-ux-agile-lean-principles/ Brinker, S., Rise of the Marketing Technologist, April 18, 2010, retrieved on 11.11.2016, from: http://chiefmartec.com/2010/04/rise-of-the-marketing-technologist/ Drumond, C., Agile marketing: fad or future of marketing? June 1, 2016, retrieved on 25.11.2016, from: http://blogs.atlassian.com/2016/06/agile-marketing-fad-future-marketing/ Edelman, D., Heller, J., and Spittaels, S., Agile marketing: A step-by-step guide, November 2016, retrieved on 09.12.2016, from: http://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/marketing-and-sales/ourinsights/agile-marketing-a-step-by-step-guide?

Fryrear, A., The Rise of the Agile Marketer: A Report on the State of Agile Marketing in 2016, April 6, 2016, retrieved on 11.11.2016, from: http://www.marketergizmo.com/rise-of-the-agile-marketer/

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Gilbert, B., Sales, Marketing and Revenue Management in 2015: What to Watch, retrieved on 09.11.2016, from: http://www.hsmai.org/knowledge/summary.cfm?

Gilmore, J. H., & Pine, B. J., II. (2002). Differentiating hospitality operations via experiences: Why selling services is not enough. Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, 43(3), 87–96, cited

by Leigh Quadri, D. in An experience economy analysis of tourism development along the ChautauquaLake Erie Wine Trail, 2012, pp. 27-29, retrieved from: http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3450&context=etd Hunsaker, L., Customer experience annuity. Transformation for ongoing growth, ClearAction & Marketing Future Forum, retrieved on 14.11.2016, from: clearaction_customer_experience_annuity_transformation_for_ongoing_growth Kotrba, B., Revenue Managers versus Sales - The Price War in Your Own Office, retrieved on 09.11.2016, from: http://hotelexecutive.com/business_review/2856/revenue-managers-versus-sales-theprice-war-in-your-own-office Landman, P., REVPAR… GOPPAR… something is missing! 02 February 2010, retrieved on 09.11.2016, from: https://www.xotels.com/en/revenue-management/nrevpar Landman, P., Hotel Internet Marketing Plan & Online Strategies - Part 2, retrieved on 10.11.2016, from: http://www.xotels.com/en/marketing/hotel-marketing-plan-part-2 Landman, P., Hotel Internet Marketing Plan & Online Strategies - Part 2, retrieved on 10.11.2016, from: http://www.xotels.com/en/marketing/hotel-marketing-plan-part-2 Martin, A.J., What is agile marketing and should you be sprinting to it? Apr 15, 2016, retrieved on 11.11.2016; from: http://www.cio.com/article/3057192/cmo-role/what-is-agile-marketing-and-shouldyou-be-sprinting-to-it.html Negricea, C.I., Purcarea, I.M., Digital marketing capabilities in today’s evolving digital world, Holistic Marketing Management, Volume 6, Issue 3, 2016, pp. 07-16.

Negricea, C.I., Purcarea, I.M., Engineering the Digital Transformation of Marketing, Holistic Marketing Management, Volume 6, Issue 2, 2016, pp. 06-14.

Patterson, L., How to Use Scenarios to Achieve Marketing Agility, December 7, 2016, retrieved on 08.12.2016, from: http://www.marketingprofs.com/articles/2016/31233/how-to-use-scenarios-to-achievemarketing-agility?

Pine, B. J., II, & Gilmore, J. H. (1998). Welcome to the experience economy. Harvard Business Review, 76(4), 97–105, and Pine, B. J., II, & Gilmore, J. H. (1999). The experience economy: Work is theatre & every business a stage. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press, cited by Leigh Quadri, D. in An experience economy analysis of tourism development along the Chautauqua-Lake Erie Wine Trail, 2012, pp. 27-29, retrieved from: http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3450&context=etd Pine, B. J., II, & Gilmore, J. H. (1999). The experience economy: Work is theatre & every business a stage. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press, p. 30, cited by Leigh Quadri, D. in An experience economy analysis of tourism development along the Chautauqua-Lake Erie Wine Trail, 2012, pp. 27-29, retrieved from: http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3450&context=etd Ratiu, M.P., Purcarea, I.M., Digital Tourism on the Way to Digital Marketing Success, Holistic Marketing Management,Volume 5, Issue 2, 2015, pp. 30-37.

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Ratiu, M.P., Purcarea, I.M., Organizing for digital marketing success in tourism, Holistic Marketing Management,Volume 5, Issue 4, 2015, pp. 22-27.

Ratiu, M.P., Purcarea, I.M., Reaching Travelers Through Digital Marketing Channels, Holistic Marketing Management,Volume 5, Issue 3, 2015, pp. 26-31.

Schwaber, K., and Sutherland, J., The Definitive Guide to Scrum: The Rules of the Game, July 2016, retrieved on 25.11.2016, from: 2016-Scrum-Guide-US Smed, M.K., Identity in tourist motivation and the dynamics of meaning, in “Contemporary Tourist Experience: Concepts and Consequences”, Richard Sharpley, Philip Stone, Editors, Routledge, 2012, pp.

130-133, 139-141 Stocking, H.L., The “Problem with Marketing” and the Agile Marketing Solution, Prairie Sky Group, 2012, retrieved on 25.11.2016, from: The-Problem-with-Marketing-and-the-Agile-Marketing-Solution Vishwanath Iyer, R., Kanban – An Alternative To The Agile Model Of Project Management, Holistic Marketing Management, Volume 5, Issue 4, 2015, pp. 36-43.

Visser, J., Field, D., and Sheerin, A., The Agile Marketing Organization, October 2015, retrieved on 11.11.2016, from: https://www.bcgperspectives.com/content/articles/marketing-brand-strategy-agilemarketing-organization/ *** Hotel Revenue Management, retrieved on 09.11.2016, from: https://www.xotels.com/en/hotelrevenue-management *** eBook, Leadership in Revenue Management, Revenue-Management-Manual-Xotels.pdf *** http://www.hsmai.org/content.cfm? *** http://www.hsmai.org/content.cfm?ItemNumber=4841&navItemNumber=618&navItemNumber=590 *** Revenue management, retrieved on 10.11.2016, from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revenue_management *** RO2Win - Revenue Optimization e-Course, June 1, 2015, retrieved on 09.11.2016, from: http://www.hsmai.org/knowledge/multimedia.cfm? *** Innovative Revenue Management Solution presented @ WTM 2016 by Xotels, September 28, 2016, retrieved on 10.11.2016, from: http://www.xotels.com/en/news/hotel-scienz-by-xotels-wtm-2016 *** The Agile Revolution in Marketing, A Simple Agile Marketing FAQ Guide for Marketing Leaders (Simple’s marketing workflow management platform works for traditional and agile marketing work processes), retrieved on 25.11.2016, from: the-agile-revolution-in-marketing *** The Executive’s CXM Strategy Guide, SDL (LSE: SDL), 2014, retrieved on 04.11.2016, from: SDL_wp_CXM-Strategy-Guide_EN_A4_tcm73-48501 *** Seven steps to better customer experience management. Improve customer management to drive profitable growth, KPMG LLP, 2011, retrieved on 03.11.2016, from: seven-steps-better-customerexperience-management *** Hotel Marketing Plan: How to Drive Direct Sales, retrieved on 10.11.2016, from: http://www.xotels.com/en/marketing/art-of-driving-direct-sales Holistic Marketing Management

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Conferences organized by the RAU School of Management-Marketing in October-December 2016 Diana SOCA It is well-known that academics allocate a significant particle of their own time and resources to attending or organising academic conferences which: can ensure the transfer of productive information; are considered a professionally rewarding experience, including by building relationships with other researchers in the field, and inspiring research ideas of your own; have a considerable impact in stimulating the collaborations and multi-institutional collaborations. Given the actions taken at the level of our School of Management-Marketing, the Romanian-American University, we considered useful to summarize some of the events held during October-December this year.

“Marketing Innovation” Conference The School of Management-Marketing of the Romanian-American University (RAU) organized on December 6, 2016 the conference entitled “Marketing Innovation”. The conference was held by the prestigious professor Fabiola Sfodera from the Sapienza University of Rome, Italy, Department of Communication and Social Research (CoRiS).

“Marketing vs Revenue Management” Conference The Schools of Management-Marketing and Domestic and International Economy of Tourism of the Romanian-American University organized on November 28th, 2016, the conference entitled “Marketing vs Revenue Management”. The conference gathered academics, professionals and students to discuss about topics of utmost importance regarding Marketing and Revenue Management in hospitality industry.

The event was a good occasion to exchange ideas and strengthen the ties with the business environment.

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“Marketing in Eastern and Central Europe” Conference The School of Management-Marketing of the Romanian-American University (RAU) organized on November 8, 2016, the Conference “Marketing in Eastern and Central Europe”.

The prestigious Professor Laszlo Jozsa from the Szechenyi Istvan University, Gyor, Hungary gave a great speech on this topic.

“The Importance of Business Ethics and Etiquette in Doing Business in Asia” Conference The School of Management-Marketing, Romanian-American University (RAU), organized on November 4, 2016, the Conference “The Importance of Business Ethics and Etiquette in Doing Business in Asia”. Professor Kim Fam, School of Marketing and International Business, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, gave a speech on this topic.

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In the very serious conversation and interchange of views which followed the lecture’s delivery, students and teachers also debated on ways of initiating and managing business relationships more effectively with partners and customers from Asia. At the same time, this meeting with Professor Kim Fam also gave the Members of the RAU Management-Marketing Department the opportunity to identify ways of collaborating in research projects.

Profile of Professor Kim Fam Professor Fam has industry experience in retailing and advertising before turning to academia.

He is a member the Editorial Board member of European Journal of Marketing, of Asian Journal of Business and Accounting;, of International Journal of Advertising. He is Founding Director of MAG Scholar® (www.magscholar.com).

Professor Fam’s primary research theme is the influence of aspects of culture (ie. values and faith) on the inter-relationships between advertisers and consumers. Primarily he is interested in why and how some elements of culture influence the theory and practice of marketing in a particular Asian market. Currently, Professor Fam is working on several research projects at various stages of development. His research projects can be grouped into three themes: „When is Goodbye a Good Buy” (sales promotion techniques, equity theory and purchase satisfaction); „Marketing the Brains Business” (choice of education destination, brand trust, cultural values and Generation ‘Y’ students); and „Faith and Value Based Marketing” (Islamic marketing, Confucian marketing).

Amongst others, his publications have appeared in the Journal of Marketing, European Journal of Marketing, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Advertising Research, Psychology and Marketing, and Journal of Business Research.

Qualifications: BA, MBA Stir; DipM, DipMRS UK; PhD Newcastle Holistic Marketing Management

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Achievements and awards: Awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Szechenyi Istvan University, 2012; Finalist for the Convocation Medal for Professional Excellence 2011, University of Newcastle; Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, 2008; Founded MAG Scholar in 2007; Newcastle University Postgraduate Award Scholar, 1995-1997.

Current research projects: Sales Promotion and Corporate Social responsibility.

Courses/Teaching in 2017 (as Course Coordinator and Lecturer): Advanced Global Marketing; International Marketing; Marketing in Asia.

Research interests: Faith and value based marketing communications; Marketing of education; SMEs promotion management.

SCM4ECR Conference 2016 The Academic Partnership 2016 SCM4ECR Conference organized by the SCM-ECR Laboratory, The Faculty of Economic Sciences, Valahia University of Târgovişte – in collaboration with Czestochowa University of Technology (Poland), Romanian Logistics Association – ARILOG, University Politehnica of Bucharest (Faculty of Transports), Bucharest University of Economic Studies (Faculty of Marketing & Faculty of Business and Tourism), and Romanian-American University (Faculty of Management-Marketing) – took place from 28 to 29 October 2016, and was attended by the globally recognised Keynote Speaker Ruediger Hagedorn, Senior Manager, Collaborative Value Chain Initiatives & Projects, The Consumer Goods Forum, Paris (who delivered a high-profile talk of real interest to everyone at the 2016 SCM4ECR Conference ).

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Founded in December 2009 – following the merging of three industry-leading associations, CIES (The World Food Business Forum), the Global Commerce Initiative (GCI) and the Global CEO Forum – “The Consumer Goods Forum” (CGF) is fostering debate across the board and membership (400 members across 70 countries retailers, manufacturers and service providers; CGF member companies combined sales of € 3.5 trillion; CGF member companies directly employ nearly 10 million people; 35 projects sand working groups with 1500 experts; 30 events per year workshops and study tours to large conventions) to identify areas which require collective, measurable action, is developing, agreeing and encouraging the targeted global adoption of practices and standards which do not impede competition, is sharing solutions and best practice examples across and beyond the membership, and is engaging with stakeholders and regional associations to speak for the industry with a common voice. CGF is governed by its Board of Directors, which includes 50 manufacturer and retailer CEOs and Chairpersons.

The theme of this year’s SCM 4 ECR Conference was: Future Value Chain – Rethinking Networks through Omni-Channel for Consumer. New challenges of IoT in Supply Chain Management, the topics of interests including (but not being limited to) the following issues: Customer-Driven Supply Chain; Demand Chain Management Empowered by Consumer Engagement; Future Value Chain – Rethinking Networks through Omni-Channel for Consumer; Supply Chain Security Management and Business Continuity Management; IoT and Supply Chain Management.

This year’s SCM 4 ECR Conference proved once again to be a significant event, also reconfirming the well-known passion, competence and perseverance of Professor Virgil Popa, Conference Founder and Chairman, the builder of this true brand – Supply Chain Management (SCM) for Efficient Consumer Response (ECR) Conference. Allow us to remember a particular historical less known moment: Virgil Popa (as CEO and President of the Board of RESCOPA S.A., Târgovişte) and Theodor Purcarea (as a representative of the Romanian Ministry of Holistic Marketing Management

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Commerce) had a meeting in 1992 with Richard Fedigan, President & CEO of CIES (January 1990 – February 2005), on the occasion of the International Food Exibition SIAL Paris (Salon International de l’Alimentation). Four years later, in January 1996, Virgil Popa participated at the first Official ECR Europe Conference, Geneva, Switzerland.

The representatives of RAU School of Management-Marketing at this year’s SCM 4 ECR Conference were involved as Conference Co-Chair, and in the Conference Organizing Committee, the Programme Steering Committee and the Advisory Board/Scientific Committee.

It is also worth mentioning that the presentation of a RAU Master’s student in Marketing, coordinated by the Dean of the RAU Faculty of Management-Marketing Costel Negricea, was very well-received and appreciated by the participants (Conference Chair Virgil Popa and Keynote Speaker Ruediger Hagedorn congratulated him personally).

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It is also worth mentioning, within this context, that Friday, December 9, 2016, the historical Aula Magna of the Bucharest University of Economic Studies (ASE) hosted the Awards Ceremony of the Organization of Marketing in Tourism in Romania (OMTR) and the Marketing Students Association in Romania (AMA Romania), with the special participation of Mr. Dan Puric, reputed Actor and Director.

On this occasion an award for constant advocacy in favor of recognition of professionalism and in promoting authenticity in Romanian tourism was handed over to the Editor-in-Chief of the “Holistic Marketing Management� Journal.

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The latest issue of our partner journal, „Marketing Science and Inspirations”, Vol. XI, 2016, Number 3, Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia Theodor PURCĂREA

JEL Classification: Y30

We are happy to receive by post a new issue of our partner journal, „Marketing Science and Inspirations”, Vol. XI, 2016, Number 3. „Marketing Science and Inspirations” is a wellknown academic journal addressed to academics and practitioners. The latest issue of this journal covers a wide range of topics in the marketing research field: “Strategy variations in roadside outdoor advertising: A psycholinguistic perspective of Czech, German and Bolivian campaigns” (Dagmar Sieglova; the author use an alternative cross-disciplinary approach, adopting psycholinguistic analytical tools for interpreting marketing communication strategies with respect to the consumer behavioral patterns; to demonstrate the variation of the communication strategies used, traffic related messages and their conversational functions were used; it was also demonstrated that using an alternative approach to marketing communication can contribute to to unfold a set of new techniques which can help to better understand the psychology of the consumer and develop relevant, customer targeted, modern advertising solutions); “Training Holistic Marketing Management

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concepts for industrial service staff in an intercultural context” (Margarethe Uberwimmer, Jovana Tomovic, Robert Fureder; the authors showed the significant roles of the industrial services, demonstrating that: carefully designed trainings are a basis for both outstanding service delivery, and for keeping employees’ motivational levels and experiencing perks on both micro/organizational and macro/economy levels; shifting business to foreign markets triggers the need for intercultural competence, which represents an incremental part of any training concept and its delivery); “Managing your customer centric initiatives” (Sanjay Kumar Rawat; the author argued that within the new economic realities there is a real need of making a priority from Customer centric governance, by understanding the role of culture and its impact, articulating your line of sight, describing holistically what success look like, integrating your goals with your program’s initiatives, reviewing and managing your “pipeline” of improvements, and measuring progress periodically both at the program and activity level); “How do managers work with

digital communication media in international business relationships? Focus group results of managers’ experiences of digital media use for relationship buiding” (Ellinor Torsein; the author Holistic Marketing Management

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showed what the results of a focus group consisting of seven managers with vast experience of international negotiation revealed: traditional marketing activities and communication media prevail – personal meetings, telephone conferences and emails are the preferred ways of communicating; digital communication media is used whenever it allows for traditional B2B behavior; all communication, regardless of which medium is used, is adapted to the cultural background and seniority of the recipient, and to the stage of development of the relationship); “Exorcising dust – a reflection on cultural differences in understanding ads” (Rupert Beinhauer, Hildegard Liebl).

The „Marketing Science and Inspirations” journal also includes other sections such as: “Marketing Briefs” (Pavel Strach – “Upgrading shopping experience: The desire of being someone else”); “Captured us” (“Festival Cannes in Prague wants to contribute to the success of the Czech advertising”); “Reviews” (Magdalena Samuhelova – “Michael Parker: It’s not important what you say, but how you say it!”, Praha : Naše vojsko, 2016), “Dictionary of Useful Marketing Terms” (Dagmar Weberova).

It is worth mentioning that the Editor-in Chief of the „Marketing Science and Inspirations” journal is Professor Peter Starchon, Faculty of Management, Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia, who is also Member of the Editorial Boards of the “Holistic Marketing Management” Journal and of the “Romanian Distribution Committee Magazine”. And it is always our honor and pleasure to remember our meeting in Koln, Germany, in 2011, on the occasion of the working meeting of the European Retail Academy (ERA).

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