Montpellier Research in Management

Marketing

Building on decades of marketing work in Montpellier, the MRM-Marketing group's research is structured around three main areas:

  • Emotional dynamics – Experiential marketing and affective responses,
  • Relationship dynamics – Relationship marketing, digital marketing, and brand relationships
  • Competitive dynamics – Communication strategies and Sales forces.

This research aims to make a theoretical contribution to the field of marketing while responding to managerial and societal demands. It addresses current issues of sustainability and digitalization that underpin the adoption of new consumption models and behaviors. More specifically, this work aims, on the one hand, to understand the service or consumption experience (components, antecedents, and consequences) from the perspective of the various stakeholders (customers, consumers, citizens, associations, companies, organizations, etc.) and, on the other hand, to identify and analyze the management strategies and mechanisms most likely to build long-term relationships (communication strategies, distribution methods, service or product innovation, etc.).

These structural axes are fully in line with the orientations of the MUSE scientific project (Feed  Care; Protect), the key areas of the Labex Entreprendre (Area A1-P1: Entrepreneurship and Technological Innovation; Area A2-P3: Governance, Market Strategies, and Sustainable Performance), and the cross-cutting areas of the MRM laboratory (Agri-Food Management; Health Management; Responsible Management and Sustainable Development).

This work has been published in leading national scientific journals (Décisions Marketing and Recherche et Applications en Marketing) and international journals, including those ranked as Tier 1 by HCERES (Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Small Business Management), as well as presented at renowned international conferences (ACR, AMA, AMS, EMAC, etc. at the international level, and AFM, JNRC, etc. at the national level).

Research meetings are held monthly and usually take place on the first Monday of each month in hybrid mode.

Research topics

The Marketing group is led by Béatrice SIADOU-MARTIN and Olga GONCALVES. The Marketing group's research is structured around three main areas related to fields of application identified and promoted in the region:

Theme 1: Emotional dynamics – Experiential marketing and affective responses

Research on this topic aims to better understand and explain changes in consumer behavior (emotional judgments and behavioral reactions) in order to guide brand strategies (communication, labels, etc.) and public policy (prevention campaigns). This area of research focuses in particular on understanding the role of marketing in the shift towards a society focused on well-being. To this end, research will be structured around three themes: (1) new modes of influence inconsumer communities, (2) work onsocially responsible consumption, and(3) the study ofcustomer decision-making processes. Within this focus area, research projects on vegetarianism, veganism, nutrition, and obesity/overweight will be priority areas of application.

Theme 2: Relationship dynamics – Relationship marketing, digital marketing, and brand relationships

Work related to this theme focuses on the dynamics of relationships with a brand, product, organization, habitat, or city. More specifically, this area of research attempts to understand the societal challenges of digital transformation based on two major themes:responsibility in brand-customer relationships (transparency, privacy) andthe transformation of uses inconnected environments (appropriation of digital services, human-machine interface, coordination between IoT, interactions on social media, in virtual communities, etc.). In this area, research projects on connected homes and smart cities (HUTHuman at Home Project,CitUs Chair) as well as connected health will be areas of focus.

Theme 3: Competitive dynamics – Communication Strategies and Sales Forces

This focus area takes a strategic approach to market development and aims to identify the levers that can be used to optimize marketing strategies targeting consumers and professional buyers. Work in this area seeks to better understand how to measure marketing performance (a new approach to markets basedon brand value and performance) and the factors that explain the performance of marketing strategies, with a focus oncreativity and packaging designandnew methods of persuasion inadvertising and promotion. Work related tosales strategies isalso central to this theme, from an emotional (emotion management,mindfulness), cultural (cultural intelligence), and educational (sales training) perspective. Work on the cooperative sector, as well as fieldwork with salespeople, will be the primary areas of application.

These structural axes are broken down into three priority areas of application that are fully in line with the scientific objectives of the MUSE project (Feed  Care; Protect), the key areas of focus of the Labex Entreprendre (Area A1-P1: Entrepreneurship and Technological Innovation; Area A2-P3: Governance, Market Strategies, and Sustainable Performance), and the cross-disciplinary areas of focus of the MRM laboratory (Agri-Food; Health; Innovation & Sustainable Development).

  • Agri-food marketing: Researchers in this group work in collaboration with the wine industry and wine tourism sector, focusing specifically on consumer food and nutritional behaviors.
  • Health marketing: Research in this area focuses on social marketing and the use of digital technology in the health sector.
  • Sustainable marketing and innovation marketing: Research in this area seeks to understand how digital communication tools are redefining the consumer/brand relationship and how the Internet of Things is reshaping the way people consume and live insmart homes andsmart cities.

Group leaders

Béatrice SIADOU-MARTIN
Group Director
Contact

Marie-Christine LICHTLE
Deputy Director
Contact

Permanent Members

Associate Members

Doctorants

Doctors

HUman at home projecT (HUT) project

The HUT project is a unique scientific experiment bringing together thirteen university research laboratories, industrialists, and institutions around a common goal: to understand the uses of connected housing in the future and assess the impact of technologies and connected objects on everyday behavior and well-being in the home. Stemming from questions raised by researchers from various disciplines (hard sciences and humanities and social sciences), this project aims to put people at the center and reflect on the new perspectives offered by the technologies that are becoming part of our daily lives and our homes.

Organized within a consortium of thirteen scientific laboratories, seven partner companies (Nexity, Ikea, Oceasoft, Deliled, Enedis, Synox, Banque Populaire) and local authorities (Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole and FEDER REGION, CNRS, HUMANHUM, MSH SUD, the University of Montpellier Foundation), researchers are working in an interdisciplinary manner to explore and anticipate new uses and behaviors, while seeking to prevent and guard against ethical and practical abuses that could exist in the homes of the future.

We know what technology will enable tomorrow, but how these advances will be used is still unknown. To define the conditions for our well-being in the homes of the future, researchers are analyzing all types of data (locomotion, energy consumption, perceived acceleration of time, comfort, etc.) collected in an observatory apartment (equipped with more than 65 sensors), inhabited by a pair of students who have been replaced each academic year since 2018 (third year of occupancy currently underway).

In the medium term, HUT will move up a gear to study not just a smart home but a smart building, a connected residence with 125 student apartments (in partnership with Nexity, Studéa, and Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole). Four areas of focus will guide this new project: social, digital, and economic inclusion; well-being and living well together; sustainable development and ecological transition; and finally, data protection and security.

http://www.hut-occitanie.eu/

Twitter: @HUTmtp

Contact:hut-contact@services.cnrs.fr/ +33 (0)411 75 71 74

Cit.Us Chair

Officially launched in 2019, the International Chair on Smart City Uses and Practices, a collaboration between the School of Management Sciences (ESG) at the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM) and the Montpellier Management Institute (MOMA) at the University of Montpellier (UM), creates a cross-disciplinary center of expertise dedicated to describing, explaining, and predicting new uses of the smart city and the impacts of a "service-oriented" and connected living environment on citizen practices.

The aim of this chair is to describe, explain, and predict new uses and practices in smart, service-oriented, connected, and sustainable cities. It is no longer just a question of focusing on developments relating to technological objects (e.g., the Internet of Things, applications, etc.), but rather of investigating the perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors of users/citizens towards the services and solutions offered to them in their daily lives.

Its mission is to support and assist organizations, local authorities, businesses, start-ups, and citizens in their efforts to create a sustainable, connected, smart, and service-oriented city by providing them with scientific knowledge on smart city uses and practices: conferences and research publications, knowledge transfer workshops, meetings between citizens, manufacturers, institutions, and scientists.

Organized events

See all the days organized in connection with the Agri-Food Management focus area.