Bose Corporation Customer Support Assignment Question: The Bose Corporation, makers of high-end speakers, headphones, etc., has noted a decrease in the cu

Bose Corporation Customer Support Assignment Question:

The Bose Corporation, makers of high-end speakers, headphones, etc., has noted a decrease in the customer satisfaction levels with their customer support system, primarily their telephone support (1-800-379-2073). The primary issue appears to be perceived wait time; how long people feel they have been on-hold (in a queue), waiting for service. As customer satisfaction is very important to Bose, they are interested in improving it at this point of customer contact (the call center). They are looking to improve this measure (without the major investment of expanding the call center and the number of people answering telephones). What, if anything can be done to mitigate this problem?

Requirements:

A minimum of eight sources will be researched and described. (Note: while the use of press releases and news media summaries is permitted, they will not count toward the required sources.)

For each source, you will need to demonstrate the relevance of the material to the decision to be made. That is, you should determine how “credible”— think pyramid of evidence — the source is as it relates to the problem. If the source reports on primary research (e.g., an empirical study), then you will need to describe/summarize that research and provide an assessment of its results – including an evaluation of the conclusions. For all secondary sources, you should identify any sources of “bias” and report on how the bias may affect the conclusions.

I will evaluate each source (and your description of it) individually as to its relevance to the decision to be made (and your formulation of the decision to be made). That is, it will be evaluated as to what information it provides that will enable an informed decision to be made.

I will evaluate the collective body of sources to the extent that they, as a group, are likely to provide the necessary information to make an informed decision.

Style:

Reports for both MBA programs and employers must be error free. They must be written using complete sentences, appropriate paragraph structure, and include properly spelled words.

The paper must be written in a professional style: third person (no “I” or “we”) and reflect an unbiased perspective. The document must have a logical flow. In this case, the sources should be presented in an order that builds an argument. The conclusion should “connect the dots.”

The sources shall be properly referenced using APA format (see: public folders/Providence Campus/The Graduate School/APA Basic Manual for a brief description of the required citation format).

The fellow document is the example of the part 1 paper.

Thank you! 1
Introduction
“Don’t put your eggs in one basket.” This is well-known business advice. In an
accelerated global society where consumers are facing various choices, market segments
are increasingly thinner, and product cycles move ever faster (Ante, 2010), this, in turn,
leads to higher operational risks. More and more organizations have realized that
diversification is a good way to manage the risks, because if the return on one investment
decreases, there is another investment that can help to balance the whole situation.
Diversification in investments is a good example because it not only can mitigate risks
that may be brought by difference of investment paths, but can also create new business
opportunities, as well as locate and reach out to a variety of customers.
Sponsorship is indeed a form of investment. Researchers have identified that the
essence of a sponsorship bond has two sides: the sponsor and the sponsee, the corporate
sponsor exchanges an event or property for available commercial potential (Fortunato,
2009). Obviously, the direct purpose of both sides of a sponsorship bond is to increase
revenues and profits. Actually, in addition to tangible benefits, there will be intangible
benefits, such as boosting employee morale and forming public trust (Dean, 2002).
With the development of commercial society, sponsorship is not fresh news, but a
commonplace means of investment. While sponsorship is consistently involved with all
sorts of sports, entertainment and public activities, O’Reilly and Seguin (2009) comment
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that many corporations prefer to sponsor sporting events and entities. Sports can be
characterized as “big business” based on the billions of dollars that corporation sponsors
have invested in them. The rapid development of the Internet has led to electronic media
becoming a part of people’s daily life. When people watch sports through different media
options, they enjoy the convenience and instant reporting of results, which have been
brought about by sports programming combined with the Internet and technology, such as
high-fidelity sports arenas and the live global network.
It is obvious that sports bring delight to many people; sports also create business
opportunities and benefits for many corporations. Raynaud and Bolos (2008) point out
that the reason why an ever-increasing number of companies are interested in investing in
sports is “because it is a big, growing and has measurable impacts of rational and
emotional benefits”. Hence, some examples of sports sponsorship come from famous
companies that have indicated that they are more likely to invest in all sorts of sports
event and entities. For example, since 1985, Chevrolet has been the official sponsor of
Major League Baseball. Major League Soccer’s official sponsors include different
industries, such as American Airlines, AT&T, NAPA, Panasonic, and so on. Almost every
sports event and entity have their own official sponsors, which include a variety of
brands.
Google, as one of the high-tech and Internet search leaders, is planning to become a
sponsor of a U.S. Major League Soccer team. They would like to know, if they become a
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sports sponsor, what benefits they will receive on such an investment. The purpose of this
research study is to analyze the factors that impact on Google, as a sports sponsor and to
explain that their benefits will occur in two ways: economic and non-economic.
Furthermore, as an example, Chevrolet and Major League Baseball will be utilized to
further this research study.
Sources List
Raynaud, J., & Bolos, G. (2008). Sport at the heart of marketing: The integration debate.
Journal of Sponsorship, 2(1), 31-35.
Raynaud was appointed Vice Chairman and Bolos was appointed Vice-President
Marketing and Sales, by Eurosport Group. As a sports media group, Eurosport is now in
lead position in the sports multimedia platform, which has reached out to pan-Europe.
The purpose of the study is to explain how in today’s world, sports play an important role
because an increasing number of corporations have realized that sports are a powerful
marketing platform. The authors briefly introduce the history of sports marketing, and
further explain that sports marketing has been a favorite of global brands. The example of
Emirates is used to indicate the fact that brands leverage sports-sponsorship platforms in
order to meet their own business purpose. Hence, the authors conclude that more and
more corporations are realizing that sports sponsorship doesn’t mean “an expense,” but
rather, is a form of investment.
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Furthermore, the authors explain some success factors that are used to guide
marketers to choose, operate and evaluate a sports-marketing effort. These factors are:
●
●
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Treating sports as serious investment;
A corporate champion;
360-degree activation coming from a single point.
Meanwhile, Raynaud and Bolos give the example of ING Bank presenting its
process on sports sponsorship to point out that sports-sponsorship decision is “as rigorous,
sophisticated and strategic as for any other industrial investment.”
In summary, from the point of view of the authors, sport is at the heart of marketing
and this trend is growing. Likewise, the study by Fortunato cited below shows that sports
sponsorship is increasingly recognized as an ideal communication vehicle for a company
because of the large and loyal audiences.
Fortunato, A. J. (2009). Using sponsorship as a form of public relations: A Case study of
Chevrolet and Major League Baseball. Journal of Sponsorship, 2(4), 330-339.
John A. Fortunato, a professor at Fordham University and author of several articles
that have been published in various sports journals, describes Chevrolet’s sponsorship of
Major League Baseball (MLB) to promote understanding that sponsorship can be thought
5
of as a form of public relations, not simply a form of advertising. He uses this case to
demonstrate how Chevrolet achieves its objectives of public relations by sponsoring
MLB. His example refers to some previous works on the topic, “image transfer in sports
sponsorship” (International Journal of Sports Marketing & Sponsorship 1(1) October
2005 42-48). This case study vividly reveals how the sponsorship effectively associates
with public relations: “Target audience for the sponsorship will transfer their loyalty from
the sponsored property or event to the sponsor itself.”
In addition, Fortunato points out that a corporate social responsibility in a
sponsorship will further a brand’s image and have greater influence on consumer
behavior. However, this point has not been academically analyzed in this article.
Finch, D., O’Reilly, N., Varella, P., & Wolf. D. (2009). Return on trust: An empirical
study of the role of sponsorship in stimulating consumer trust and loyalty. Journal
of sponsorship, 3(1), 61-72.
The authors all are teaching and conducting research at universities. Among them, in
addition to being an Associate Professor at Syracuse University; Norm O’Reilly is also a
Visiting Scholar at Stanford University and has had more than 40 articles published. The
authors conducted this study to examine whether the construct of trust can be a valid and
reliable variable in the relationship between sponsorship and customer loyalty. The core
purposes of the empirical study were: (1) To identify the relationship between
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sponsorship and the metric of trust, and (2) To clarify whether the subsequent influence
of sponsorship and customers’ trust may lead to customers’ loyalty.
The authors also proposed the following two hypotheses:
H1: The level of customers’ trust in their mobile phone supplier predicts higher
customer loyalty
H2: Customers of a mobile phone company who attend an event sponsored by the
company will have higher levels of trust in this company, when compared with the
general population.
In total, four population groups and 1,328 surveys were involved in the research
study, which lasted over 90 days; the results indicated that sponsorship is likely to
stimulate consumer trust, and the subsequent influence leads to consumer loyalty.
The authors realized that there were some limitations, which must be considered for
further research. Further research may focus on the relationship between sponsorship,
trust and loyalty under different conditions. For example, does the industry of the
sponsoring company influence these relationships?
O’Keefe, R., Titlebaum, P., & Hill, C. (2009). Sponsorship activation: Turning money
spent into money earned. Journal of Sponsorship, 3(1), 43-53.
7
The authors include an Associate Professor, an experienced member of the
sponsorship industry and a graduate student. The purpose of this study was to understand
the impact of the money spent on sponsorship, as well as to explain how to improve
returns on this investment by sponsorship activation. This study group found that a tip to
maximizing sponsorship profits is how to effectively and efficiently utilize sponsorship of
an event or property and not to depend on selecting the right event or property.
The authors use interviews as a way to survey the current state and trends of
sponsorship activation. The people surveyed for this study included representatives of the
corporate sponsors of the four major professional sports leagues.
The results suggested that sponsors must clearly know their own objectives and their
expected value. Especially at the beginning stage, it’s important to utilize the eduselling
theory, which is a thorough, fully-prepared education for potential sponsors.
Harvey, B. (2001). Measuring the Effects of Sponsorships. Journal of Advertising
Research, 41(1), 59-65.
The author is CEO and president of Next Century Media, Inc. and has more than 35
years experience in the area of media research. The purpose of this study is to explain the
business value of sponsorships compared to advertising. In the author’s previous work, he
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has been an advocate of higher efficiency for sponsorship than for advertising. Originally,
the goal of this study was to develop a methodology for measuring the effects of Internet
sponsorships in 1999. Subsequently, it was expanded to make methodologies applicable
across all media, including television and event sponsorships. The research group
designed four hypotheses for testing the effects of sponsorship, but only three of the
hypotheses were tested and clarified. The result showed that (1) Sponsorship will play a
larger role in the future and has a persuasion effect, as does advertising. (2) Sponsorship
has its more positive business effects than straight product-sell advertising based on
different cognitive processes. (3) Sponsorship may have more power to influence
consumers’ behavior than advertising. However, the author pointed out that it was far too
soon for the second study result to draw the conclusion stated because of the slight
amount of evidence, so there needed to be much further study to support it.
Brewer, M. R., & Pedersen, M. P. (2009). Franchises, value drivers and the application
of valuation analysis to sports sponsorship. Journal of Sponsorship, 3(2),
181-193.
Ryan is a Visiting Assistant Professor at Indiana University. Paul is the Director of
the Sport Management Doctoral Program at Indianan University and the founding editor
of the International Journal of Sport Communication. The authors utilize a qualitative
framework combined with literature review, which the aim is to understand the
9
investment value of sports sponsorship through valuation analysis way.
The authors proposed a theoretical model that incorporates the logical connections
between sporting event attendance, total reach, franchise value, additional sponsorship
drivers and expected cost of sponsorship investment at a specific sports event. It is
suggested that the theoretical model will help brand managers to value a sporting event
that they are interested in investing in, to understand the market rate for sponsorship
investment, to know how much to pay sponsor fee generally. The article clearly illustrates
what and how valuation analysis can be applied to sports sponsorship in order to better
understand the investment value.
Conclusion
With the rapid development of Internet, today’s 21st century has been characterized
as information age. Every moment, consumers are facing a variety of information media
options, as well as are intentionally avoiding some information, such as advertising. Bill
Harvey (2001) points out that in the future, the rise in penetration of Personal Video
Recorders will lead to increased consumers’ ability to avoid advertising.
However, sponsorship, as an extension of advertising, is playing a larger role in the
future. Even pundits are pronouncing that “the future shall be a new golden Age for
sponsorship, product placement and cast presenter commercials” (Harvey, 2001).
Fortunato (2009) explains the reason is that sponsorship, as a prominent part of the
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promotional communication strategy, can help companies to simultaneously achieve
advertising and public relations objectives, such as brand exposure, brand recall and even
potentially influencing consumer behavior.
Furthermore, Fortunato (2009) stated: “because of a large and loyal audience, the
area of sports sponsorship serves as an ideal communication vehicle for a company”.
Kaynak (2008) said that the organizations are more likely to be a sports sponsor because
sport, as a medium, can create a distinctive image between sponsor brands from
competitor brands.
Even though sports sponsorship will bring both tangible and intangible benefits for
companies, there are still some potential risks. For a successful sponsorship, researchers
suggest that sponsors must clearly know what their own objectives are, and what their
own expectation accomplishment is (O’Keefe, Titlebaum, Hill, 2009). In addition to,
there are some opposite opinions about sports sponsorship. Because of an increase in
sports scandals, for example, athletes using performance-enhancing drugs, rugby’s
‘bloodgate’ and so on. Sports sponsors should be concerned that negative effectiveness
because these may taint sponsor brand’ reputations, in turn, will lead to brand damage,
and even destroy sponsors’ brand. Some exporters agree with the point, but there are
some opponents (Marketing, 2009).
To conclude, sponsorship is a growing trend in business world. As the influence of
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sports, sports sponsor is becoming a key communication strategy for many companies. It
not only will meet management objectives of companies, but can also help sponsors to
form customer trust, this, in turn, will lead to customer loyalty. Meanwhile, to decrease
potential sponsorship risks, sponsors should utilize a theoretical model to value sporting
events that they are interested in investing in and to make a prepared research plan.
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REFERENCES
Ante, E. S., (2010). The science of desire: as more companies refocus squarely on the
consumer, ethnography and its proponents have become star player. Annual
Editions: Marketing (32nd ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Dean, D. H. (2002). Associating the Corporation With a Charitable Event Through
Sponsorship: Measuring the effects on corporate community relations. Journal of
Advertising, 31(4), 77-88.
Fortunato, A. J. (2009). Using sponsorship as a form of public relations: A Case study of
Chevrolet and Major League Baseball. Journal of Sponsorship, 2(4), 330-339.
Grohs, R. & Reisinger, H. (2005). Image transfer in sports sponsorships: An assessment
of moderating effects. International Journal of Sports Marketing & Sponsorship,
1(1), 42-48
Harvey, B. (2001). Measuring the Effects of Sponsorships. Journal of Advertising
Research, 41(1), 59-65.
Kaynak, E., Salman, G. G., & Tatoglu, E. (2008). An Integrative Framework Linking
Brand Associations and Brand Loyalty in Professional Sports, Journal of Brand
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Management, 15(5), 336-356.
Marketing. (2009, September, 30). Should sponsors be concerned by cheating in sport.
Retrieved from
http://web.ebscohost.com/bsi/pdf?vid=3&hid=11&sid=28678eb0-8521-4531-bdfa731da167de70%40sessionmgr13
O’Keefe, R., Titlebaum, P., & Hill, C. (2009). Sponsorship activation: Turning money
spent into money earned. Journal of Sponsorship, 3(1), 43-53.
O’Reilly, N., & Seguin, B. (2009). Sport Marketing: A Canadian perspective. Toronto,
ON: Nelson Education Ltd.
Raynaud, J., & Bolos, G. (2008). Sport at The Heart of Marketing: The integration
debate. Journal of Sponsorship, 2(1), 31-35.

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