Journals Critical Review

Introduction

According to American Marketing Association (AMA): ‘Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that delivers value for customers, clients, partners, and societies at large’. Along with the development of information technology, marketers face new challenges. As the result, many contemporary issues in marketing have arisen because of the momentum of idea is too powerful or has put aside all the warning signals (Wilkinson, 1996).

Looking into further details, the three academic journals are taken into consideration to help generate a brief academic reviews on different topics related to Marketing contemporary issues including: (i) Article 1: Shockvertising - an exploratory investigation into attitudinal variations and emotional reactions to shock advertising (Parry et al., 2013) by a teams of institutional lecturers who have gained experience in Marketing, (ii) Article 2: An adoption of framework for mobile augmented reality games: The case of Pokemon Go (Rauschnabel, Rossman and Deck, 2017) by three authors from different universities and institution achieved quite high ranking of academic publishment. (iii) Article 3: Who avoids location-based advertising and why? Investigating the relationship between user perceptions and advertising avoidance (Shin and Lin, 2016) by two females, one of whom is senior lecturer and the other gained work experience in social media.

Summary

This is the section of brief summaries which cover the background information of the journals’ contents, methodologies and results of research.

The Article 1 makes study comparison which shows reactions of consumers toward shock-based advertising in the for-profit (FP) and not-for-profit (NFP) sectors in the UK. The study distinguish between how consumers react to shock advertisements in the FP and NFP sectors. Plus, it seeks for the proof that the figures defining culture of the participants have an impact on outlooks of shock ads or not.

A qualitative methodology including the application of focus groups was carried out to find out attitudes and emotional response of a number of people. Focus groups are considered as one of the most widely used methods of collecting qualitative data as they allow people who partake in to have discussion about issues using their own words and provide an insight, profound and subjective comprehension of consumers (Calder, 1977). Focus groups were consequently established in this study, allowing participants motivate each other and develop deeply comprehensive face-to-face discussions of the subject matter (Coolican, 2004).

The conclusion is that the conduction of shock advertising was apprehended to be more justifiable in the NFP sector yet much less so in the FP sector, which is different from West and Sargeant’s (2004) study, who assumed shock advertising in the NFP sector as ‘risky’.

Article 2 explores factors that drive gamers' intention to play AR games and in-app purchases by proposing a conceptual model based on literature of media and technology acceptance and conducted by previous research on AR and gaming.

The use of quantitative methodology which, in the context, also means applying survey tool to analyze the proposed model. Results taken by the assistance of a professional market research firm with an online-based panel received 642 respondents from German participants who reported Pokemon Go installation on a mobile device and get financial compensation for joining.

The results are well performed by tables of correlations and descriptive statistics which point out proportions of reasons driving participants’ intention of using Pokemon Go. The application of Search Engine Marketing testifying Attitude Towards Playing Pokemon Go, Intentions to Continue Playing Pokemon Go and Factors that Drive In-apps Purchases have led to conclusions that all factors have an impact on users’ attitudes to experiencing Pokemon go meanwhile some of which create significant effects on intentions of continuing playing and purchasing the game.

The study’s objective in article 3 is to pinpoint key perceptual factors making an impact consumers’ avoidance of location-based advertising (LBA) messages sent to their mobile devices due to their current locations, also known as “push LBA”, from which for them cho perceive and evaluate. Plus, the study also scrutinize the levels of frequency mobile users’ LBA avoidance varies between light and heavy users.

The concept of advertising avoidance has been testified in a great deal of media contexts such as newspaper, magazine, radio, television, and the Internet but few academic researches have specifically emphasized on the underlying intellectual and user factors that get consumers away from LBA. There are still limitations of research on the ignorance of mobile and personalised advertising.

This study relies mainly on a national web survey of mobile device users in Singapore, a regional hub of LBA in Asia. Before conducting the survey - pretest the questionnaire with a sample of 44 undergraduate students to process the measurement instruments. The conclusion coming up with is that those who think LBA obstruct goals, requires an amount of sacrifice and waste, and lacks efficient utility are more likely to refuse it. One way to overcome the prejudice-tendency goal impediment and sacrifice caused by LBA is to send an advertising message from which users can clearly gain benefit. If an ad is conceived as helpful and beneficial, consumers are less likely to feel irritated by it, and thus are less likely to avoid it.

This this section the strengths, limitations and contribution to existing literature are taken into account as following:

The Article 1 is logically written because of coherent, organizational structure and results report. In this case, by applying focus groups , the article has stabilized the creation of wider, deeper outlooks and was the most proper method for collecting valuable insights on a controversial topic.

Several drawbacks of this study consist the lack of generalizability of the findings mainly due to the sample size and focus area. Hence, quantitative research, further research of shock advertising in other types of social media and larger samples of participants are highly recommended to be applied. Focus groups of participants lack of diversity, additionally, findings about how education affects the apprehension of the research would better inspire readers.

This research help contributing and enhancing value to the shock advertising literature by creating new exploration in the application of shock advertising and consumer approval and refusal to FP and NFP imagery in advertising campaigns. It also fulfills the paucity of research on the NFP advertising literature by evaluating individuals’ emotional and attitudinal reactions to a variety of shock advertisements. This research also takes on making comparison of the reactions of multinational consumers to such advertisements (Sandicki, 2011).

The Article 2 has the field experiment carrying out on ‘real-people’ makes a strong point in doing research based on pre-testified qualified questions that improve the accuracy of the research. It is also of good assessment because of the well representative sample and prime level analysis of statistics.

Lack of development on fundamental factors boosting general attentiveness to these games leads to further exploration needed. Another weakness would be the design of research plus focusing on one country can be the limitation of finding generalizability. Extensive model of driving factors of approval and use of AR games on mobile are considered as the first major contribution related to theory of this study.

The first major theoretical contribution of this study, we provide an extensive model of the factors that drive the acceptance and use of mobile AR games. Extensive model of driving factors of approval and use of AR games on mobile are considered as the first major contribution related to theory of this study. Model illustrates that the mental behaviors towards using a mobile AR game is mainly adjusted by satisfaction obtained from playing the game, such as nostalgia and enjoyment. However, for in-app purchases, the model presents that this manner is run by flow, image, and social norms and social factors.

The study of article 3 is deployed by field experiment on ‘real-people’ which makes it a strong point. Pilot tested questions applied with representative sample of high level analysis of statistics enhance the convince to the study.

A weakness of this study is that participants were selected using a sampling method of no probability. Although the quota sampling method generates a good substitute for a probability sampling method for gaining a logical representation of mobile users in Singapore, care must be carried out in generalising these to other research contexts.

With theoretical approach, the study is provided with a logical and systematic comprehension of how LBA works and contributes effectively to promoting avoidance research. By testifying main perceptual factors that influence consumers’ avoidance of a new advertising form (LBA), the study supplies a background for comprehending one type of negative reaction to mobile advertising avoidance. Moreover, it is suggested that advertise-makers develop a more profound understanding of variable segments of mobile users.

Conclusion

In short, three articles written by highly-qualified authors from academic and business offices provide readers with detailed insights into issues arising in marketing process of firms which requires special ways of handling regardless of their strong and weak points which were presented above.

There are a variety remaining contemporary issues in Marketing yet with the general comparison of three articles on different Marketing aspects, the review generate an interesting point of view towards academic works on Marketing.