Montpellier Research in Management

Marketing

Building on the marketing research conducted in Montpellier over the past several decades, the MRM-Marketing group’s research is organized around three main areas:

  • Emotional Dynamics – Experiential Marketing and Affective Responses,
  • Relationship Dynamics – Relationship Marketing, Digital Marketing, and Brand Relationships, and
  • Competitive Dynamics – Communication Strategies and Sales Forces.

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

These core areas are fully aligned with the strategic directions of the MUSE scientific project (Feed  Care; Protect), the core areas of the Labex Entreprendre initiative (Axis A1-P1: Entrepreneurship and Technological Innovation; Axis 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 research has been published in leading scientific journals, both national (Décisions Marketing and Recherche et Applications en Marketing) and international—notably Tier 1 journals as defined by HCERES (Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Small Business Management)—as well as in papers presented at renowned international conferences (ACR, AMA, AMS, EMAC… internationally; AFM, JNRC… nationally).

Research meetings are held monthly and generally take place on the first Monday of each month in a hybrid format.

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 that have been identified and promoted in the region:

Topic 1: Emotional Dynamics – Experiential Marketing and Affective Responses

Research in this area seeks to better understand and explain changes in consumer behavior (emotional judgments and behavioral responses) in order to guide the strategies of brands (communication, labels, etc.) and public authorities (prevention campaigns). This research focus specifically aims to understand the role of marketing in the transition toward a society centered on well-being. To this end, research will be structured around three themes: (1) new modes of influence withinconsumer communities, (2) research onsocially responsible consumption, and(3) the study ofthe consumer decision-making process. Within this research track, projects on vegetarianism, veganism, nutrition, and obesity/overweight issues will be priority areas of focus.

Topic 2: Relationship Dynamics – Relationship Marketing, Digital Marketing, and Brand Relationships

Research in this area focuses on the dynamics of relationships with a brand, a product, an organization, a living environment, or a city. More specifically, this research area seeks to understand the societal challenges of digital transformation by focusing on two major themes:responsibility in brand-customer relationships (transparency, privacy) andthe transformation of usage patterns inconnected environments (adoption of digital services, human-machine interfaces, the interplay between IoT devices, interactions on social media and within virtual communities, etc.). Within this research area, projects on connected homes and smart cities (the HUTHuman at Home Project,the CitUs Chair) as well as on connected health will serve as key areas of focus.

Topic 3: Competitive Dynamics – Communication Strategies and Sales Forces

This research area is guided by a strategic perspective on market development and aims to identify the factors that can be leveraged to optimize marketing strategies targeting consumers and professional buyers. Research within this theme thus seeks to better understand how to measure marketing performance (a new approach to markets based onbrand value and performance) as well as the factors that explain the effectiveness of marketing strategies, with a focus oncreativity and packaging design, andnew methods of persuasion inadvertising and promotion. Research related tosales strategies isalso central to this theme, approached from emotional (emotion management,mindfulness), cultural (cultural intelligence), and educational (sales training) perspectives. Research on the cooperative sector, as well as fieldwork with salespeople, will be the primary areas of focus.

These core themes are reflected in three priority areas of application that are fully aligned with the strategic directions of the MUSE scientific project (Feed  Care; Protect), the core areas of Labex Entreprendre (Axis A1-P1: Entrepreneurship and Technological Innovation; Axis A2-P3: Governance, Market Strategies, and Sustainable Performance), and the cross-cutting areas of the MRM laboratory (Agri-Food; Health; Innovation & Sustainable Development).

  • Agri-Food Marketing: Researchers in the group work in particular with the wine and wine tourism sectors and focus specifically on consumers’ dietary and nutritional behaviors.
  • Healthcare Marketing: Research in this area focuses on the field of social marketing as well as the use of digital technology in healthcare.
  • Sustainable Marketing and Innovation Marketing: This research 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

Olga GONCALVES
Assistant Director
Contact

Permanent Members

Associate Members

Doctors

Doctors

HUman at home projecT (HUT)

The HUT project is a groundbreaking scientific initiative that brings together thirteen university research laboratories, industry partners, and institutional stakeholders around a common goal: to understand the uses of smart homes of the future and to assess the impact of technologies and connected devices on daily behaviors and well-being in the home. Stemming from questions raised by researchers from a variety of disciplines (hard sciences and the humanities and social sciences), this project aims to place people at the center and explore the new possibilities offered by the technologies that are increasingly becoming part of our daily lives and our homes.

Organized within a consortium comprising thirteen scientific laboratories, seven partner companies (Nexity, IKEA, Oceasoft, Deliled, Enedis, Synox, and Banque Populaire), and local government entities (Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole and the ERDF REGION, the CNRS, HUMANHUM, MSH SUD, and the University of Montpellier Foundation), the researchers are taking an interdisciplinary approach to explore and anticipate new uses and behaviors, while seeking to prevent and guard against any ethical and practical abuses that might arise in the homes of the future.

We know what technology will make possible in the future, but the ways in which these advances will be used remain unknown to us. To define the conditions for our well-being in the homes of the future, researchers are analyzing all types of data (movement, energy consumption, perceived acceleration of time, comfort, etc.) collected within an observatory apartment (equipped with more than 65 sensors), inhabited by a pair of students who have been rotated every academic year since 2018 (currently in its third year of occupancy).

In the medium term, HUT will scale up its efforts to focus not on a “smart home” but on a “smart building”—a connected residence complex with 125 student housing units (in partnership with Nexity, Studéa, and Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole). Four key areas of focus will guide this new project: social, digital, and economic inclusion; well-being and community life; sustainable development and the ecological transition; and, finally, data protection and security.

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

Twitter: @HUTmtp

Contact:hut-contact@services.cnrs.fr / 04.11.75.71.74

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 goal of this chair is to describe, explain, and predict new uses and practices in the smart, “service-oriented,” connected, and sustainable city. It is no longer simply a matter of focusing on developments related to technological devices (e.g., the Internet of Things, apps, etc.), but rather of investigating the perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors of users and citizens toward the services and solutions offered to them in their daily lives.

Its mission is to support and assist organizations, local governments, businesses, startups, and citizens in their efforts to create a sustainable, connected, smart, and service-oriented city by providing them with scientific knowledge on the uses and practices of smart cities: conferences and research publications, knowledge-transfer workshops, and meetings between citizens, industry representatives, institutional stakeholders, and scientists.