Research

Our wide-ranging research covers everything from brands to services marketing

Recent and current areas of research among London Business School's Marketing faculty include:

Brands

We look at brand extensions, line extensions and brand portfolios; measuring and managing brand equity and brand loyalty; drivers of brand equity; brand equity segments; brands as assets; the employer brand.

Competitive strategy

Research focuses on strategic alliances; strategic management accounting; strategic investment decisions and the links with finance.

Consumer behaviour

We look at patterns of brand and store-choice; consumer attitudes; taste formation; belief coherence and preference; the basis of decision-making; consumer involvement in brands and categories; consumer motivations for boycott participation; the erosion of repeat-purchase loyalty; the home environment as a sales forum.

International marketing

We examine overseas market entry; international business and the multinational enterprise; international brand alignment; corporate emigration; marketing in China.

Management processes

Research in this area focuses on strategic decision-making processes; techno-logical innovation and continuous improvement; aligning the organisation to the market.

Marketing analytics

This covers customer base analysis; new product sales forecasting; market response models, development of simple models, probability models, and judgement-based models.

Marketing communications

Research focuses on the effects of advertising; 'real people' vs actors in advertisements; effects of price promotions; sales-force adoption of innovations; network marketing. We also look at using neuroscience to study ad effects and buying decisions.

Marketing ethics and corporate social responsibility

We look at integrating social initiatives and (global) marketing strategy, ethical decision making in marketing, consumer boycotts, socially responsible pricing, deception in consumer research, commercial bribery, product recalls.

Marketing expenditure trends

This covers global trends in total marketing expenditure and how it is allocated between traditional media advertising, sales promotion, brand PR/sponsorship, direct mail and interactive marketing.

Marketing metrics

Originally launched in 1997, the measurement of marketing performance has now become a major issue worldwide. More recently the focus is on metrics used in planning and as top management 'dashboards'.

Media

This covers TV viewing patterns; video recorder adoption, usage and the potential impact on advertising; digital television; consumer responses to interactive television; public service broadcasting; interactive marketing; mobile advertising.

New products

We look at technology adoption and diffusion; how to accelerate market penetration; new product forecasting; market responses to new product introductions; the diffusion of successive generations of technological innovations.

Pricing

Our research looks at the relationship between price and consumer choice, price information and influence on perceptions of value, analysis of price partitioning, transgressive, regressive and projective pricing.

Services marketing

Research examines service quality and customer satisfaction; inter-personal factors in service encounters; impression management; backstage marketing; trust.

"Simply better"

What matters most to customers - the basics (generic category benefits) versus unique, brand-specific features/benefits (unique selling propositions); customer dissatisfaction with brands and categories; finding out about customer needs; innovating to improve the offer and drive the market.



Student in library

Marketing research

For full details of publications, working papers, research grants, contracts and case studies, see the details in the marketing research section.

For information on Behavioural Research in Marketing and the Behavioural Research Lab follow the link below

Behavioural Research Lab