Future Priorities for Design, Branding and Marketing
Introduction
The Era of Technology and Sustainability, Edited book; Deadline 1 Jun 2024
INTEREST CATEGORY: SUSTAINABILITY
POSTING TYPE: Calls: Other
Posted by: Courtney Chimes
Emerald Edited Book entitled
The Future Priorities for Design, Branding and Marketing: The Era of Technology and Sustainability
Deadline for full chapter 1st June 2024.
Instructions for authors:
Please submit a full chapter by 1st June 2024. Early submissions will be gratefully received. Please indicate which section your chapter will fall under.
Chapters should include an abstract of 200 words.
Chapters should be approx. 7000-8000 words in length (+/- 10%), not including references.
ABOUT THE EDITORS
Name(s):
Dr Courtney Chrimes – The University of Manchester, UK
Dr Rosy Boardman – The University of Manchester, UK
TC Melewar – Middlesex University London, UK
Charles Dennis – Middlesex University London, UK
Email address:
Dr Courtney Chrimes – courtney.chrimes@manchester.ac.uk
Dr Rosy Boardman – rosy.boardman@manchester.ac.uk
TC Melewar – T.C.Melewar@mdx.ac.uk
Charles Dennis – C.Dennis@mdx.ac.uk
ÌýÌýABOUT THE BOOK
Title/Subtitle: The Future Priorities for Design, Branding and Marketing: The Era of Technology and Sustainability
Brief Summary:
The book will examine current issues concerning technology and sustainability and its interplay with design, branding and marketing, exploring the use of research and practice for the retail industry going forward and to inform the content of marketing and design curriculums.
Full book description:
The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted how fast the environment can change, with retailing and supply chains coming to a global halt. We have seen shifts in consumer behaviour, with people becoming increasinglyÌýmore environmentally conscious, putting pressure on companies to adapt their current working practices as a result. Sustainability is, therefore, acting as a key driver for innovation, encouraging retailers and brands to adopt out-of-the-box thinking and find novel solutions without exploiting the social, environmental, or economic environment (Henninger et al., 2020). As a result, there has also been a rise in the number of businesses that are interested in eco-social responsibility activities like green marketing (Nguyen & Johnson, 2020). However, Yu (2020) noted that consumers who are sceptical of sustainable advertising are more likely to view green advertising as a means of profit maximisation rather than environmental protection. Indeed, Richardson et al., (2022) found that Gen Z consumers distrust fast fashion brands sustainability initiatives, branding them as ‘greenwashing’. Therefore, further research needs to be conducted to see how brands can adapt to more sustainable practices and produce marketing communications that are not simply greenwashing.
The cost-of-living crisis has put further pressure on brands’ supply chains and their ability to appeal to consumers who have increasingly less disposable income. This is in addition to a decade that has seen physical retail stores struggling, with commercial vacancies on high streets higher than ever (Journal of Retailing, 2022). The Centre for Retail Research estimates that since the start of 2018 alone more than 386,000 retail jobs will have been lost in the UK (Deloitte, 2021). This highlights the imperative for retailers to reconsider their physical store strategies and focus on the design and experience created for customers. Technology is one way for retailers to enhance aspects concerning their design, branding, and marketing. The latest technology is enabling brands to reach consumers more directly than ever before (Journal of Retailing, 2022), thereby dramatically changing the way that brands communicate with consumers (Pizzi and Scarpi 2020). Yet, with increasingly advanced technologies coming out each year, coupled with the shortening of technology life cycles, retailers need to constantly reimagine their strategies in order to remain competitive in a rapidly changing environment. As consumers have become used to interacting with new technologies, they leave their favourite brands with no choice but to implement them in order to keep up with the competition (Boardman, Henninger & Zhu, 2020).
This intense competition means that online fashion retailers must offer a superior online shopping experience than their competitors (Kaushik et al., 2020). This places more pressure on creating compelling retail websites and omnichannel experiences. In online and social commerce, consumers are unable to inspect products physically, therefore having to make purchase decisions by looking at online images, reading product descriptions, and then using their imagination (Li et al., 2019; Hjort et al., 2019).Ìý The inconsistency between purchased products and expectations is an essential manifestation of product dissonance (Powers & Jack, 2015). This is increasing the likelihood of consumer returns which is having a significant negative affect on the environment. Furthermore, such product inconsistency can cause significant damage to retailers and brands (Li & Choudhury, 2020). As a result, further research is needed to investigate how ecommerce and social commerce can be more effective and reduce the high rate of returns.
With new social media channels coming out all the time brands need to ensure that they are on the ones that appeal to their target market and that their content is engaging. Livestreaming on social media is becoming more commonplace, enabling brands to increase consumer awareness whilst also driving sales (Journal of Retailing, 2022). The future of social commerce has many potential avenues, such as incorporating Augmented Reality and voice search in order to enhance consumer experiences (Chrimes et al., 2019). Brands can also use social platforms to embed gamification to appeal to consumers’ desire for personalisation, self-expression, and playfulness online, aspects that have increased since the pandemic (Chen et al., 2022). Whittaker et al. (2021) show that gamification can even be used for sustainability marketing and in encouraging more sustainable consumer behaviour but research into wider demographics is still needed. Indeed, Generation Z (born between 1995 and 2010 approximately) are now growing as a consumer force. Not only do they have their own spending power and are no longer reliant upon parents, but they also have strong and distinctive wants and needs that retailers and brands need to provide for (Deloitte 2021).
Furthermore, advances in the metaverse are creating more challenges as well as more opportunities for design, branding and marketing. Yet to be fully realised, the metaverse is conceptualised as being an interconnected, 3D virtual world that overlaps with, or provides an alternative to, physical reality and is inhabited by avatars of real people (Kim, 2021). Hence, it signifies the ultimate merging of digital and physical reality (WGSN, 2020). The pressure is now on brands to partner with retailers in order to create new and compelling virtual experiences for consumers (Journal of Retailing, 2022). Thus, as brands are entering the metaverse through consumer-facing technologies and virtual platforms, such as AR, gaming and digital fashion shows, research addressing the opportunities and barriers in relation to marketing, design and branding is warranted. Areas such as Digital Avatars, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, NFTs, Gamification in Marketing, Blockchain, Digital Fashion, Virtual Brand Experiences and Artificial Intelligence are all gaining traction in response to this.
As such, retailers need to re-address their design, branding and marketing in order to encompass both social and environmental sustainability as well as incorporating the latest technologies to survive in a post-pandemic world.ÌýHence, this book aims to bring together practitioner and scholarly experts in the areas of design, branding and marketing to share their knowledge and experiences to advance scholarly and practical research in this area.
Subject / Topic Description:
The book will examine current issues concerning technology and sustainability and its interplay with design, branding and marketing, exploring the use of research and practice for the retail industry going forward as well as to inform the content of marketing and design curriculums. Some key questions which we aim to explore are:
- How have recent events in the economy (e.g., COVID-19 pandemic, cost of living crisis etc) shaped priorities for design, branding, and/or marketing?
- How has our understanding of sustainability changed in design, branding and/or marketing, and how will this impact future directions?
- What is the importance or either social or environmental sustainability for design, branding and/or marketing?
- What is the role of technology in future-proofing the industry?
- How can technology be used to enhance retailers’ design, branding and/or marketing?
- What are the opportunities of new, upcoming technologies (e.g., the metaverse) for Design, Branding or Marketing?
- What are the barriers relating to new technologies for Design, Branding or Marketing?
- What are opportunities for scholarship to address the era of technology and sustainability in design, marketing & branding subjects?
- Does the importance placed on sustainability by younger consumers and the integral use of technology in their lives affect the way that students are taught in marketing, design, and branding subject areas?
Discipline, sub discipline, and keywords: Branding/Marketing/Retailing/Design/Consumer Behaviour.
Please also list 5 Keywords that best describe your book.
Design; Branding and Marketing; Technology and Sustainability; Consumer Behaviour, Innovation.
Table of contents:
Proposed structure of the book:
Please indicate which section your chapter will fall under when you submit it.
| PART I: INTRODUCTION | ||
| Chapters | Titles | Possible contributor(s)/author(s) |
| Chapter 1 | Introduction to Design, Branding and Marketing in The Era of Technology and Sustainability | |
| PART II: Design | ||
| Chapter 2 | ||
| Chapter | ||
| Chapter | ||
| Chapter | ||
| PART III: Branding | ||
| Chapter | ||
| Chapter | ||
| PART IV: Marketing | ||
| Chapter | ||
| Chapter | ||
| PART V:Ìý Retail | ||
| Chapter | ||
| Chapter |
|
|
Instructions for authors:
Please submit a full chapter by 1st June 2024. Early submissions will be gratefully received. Please indicate which section your chapter will fall under.
Chapters should include an abstract of 200 words.
Chapters should be approx. 7000-8000 words in length ( +/- 10%), not including references.
Please submit chapters directly to BOTH:
Dr Courtney Chrimes – courtney.chrimes@manchester.ac.uk
Dr Rosy Boardman – rosy.boardman@manchester.ac.uk
All chapters will be peer-reviewed and those that are considered suitable to include in the book will be sent back to authors with revisions. The final deadline for revised chapters will be September 2024.
If you want to send abstracts or chapter outlines for feedback to Rosy and Courtney please feel free to do so at any point! In keeping with the spirit of the ICDBM we want this to be a supportive process and to help people get published. We cannot commit to reading full chapters before submission but abstracts and outlines are very much welcome J