The customer engagement ecosystem

ABSTRACT

Consumer engagement has been widely discussed in both the academic and practitioner literature, but there is no consensus about its meaning, what phenomena constitute engagement or what its antecedents and consequences are. Therefore, we propose that the term engagement should be eluded and that more specific terms should be used for the different phenomena. Building on the previous literature, we propose the customer engagement ecosystem, a conceptual model that encompasses brand actions, other actors, customer brand experience, shopping behaviours, brand consumption and brand-dialogue behaviours. The model posits that interactions between these elements are non-linear and reactive; meaning that each action causes a reaction of not only the intended recipient of the message, but the whole ecosystem. Hence, the model reflects the interconnected character of today’s marketing environment. It also recognises the growing importance of empowered consumers by distinguishing different forms of brand dialogue behaviours, which describe customers’ non-purchase focused behaviours.

KEYWORDS:

• Customer engagement
• brand
• customer experiences
• non-purchase behaviours
• brand dialogue behaviours
• engagement ecosystem

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Medill IMC Spiegel Digital & Database Research Center, Northwestern University.

Notes on contributors

Ewa Maslowska

Ewa Maslowska is a post-doctoral research associate in the Medill IMC Spiegel Digital and Database Research Center. She earned her PhD in the Persuasive Communication programme in the Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR) at University of Amsterdam. Her dissertation explored how personalised marketing communication influences consumers. Prior to her studies at UvA, Ewa completed her MA in Psychology at Jagiellonian University. Her research is grounded in consumer psychology and focuses on data-driven analyses investigating different forms on consumer engagement, persuasive message processing, and psychological aspects of new media use.

Edward C. Malthouse

Edward C. Malthouse is the Theodore R and Annie Laurie Sills Professor of Integrated Marketing Communications and Industrial Engineering at Northwestern University and the Research Director for the Spiegel Institute on digital and database marketing. He was the co-editor of the Journal of Interactive Marketing between 2005-2011. He earned his PhD in 1995 in computational statistics from Northwestern University and completed a post doc at the Kellogg marketing department. His research interests centre on engagement, media marketing, new media, integrated marketing communications, customer lifetime value models, predictive analytics, and unsupervised learning. He is the author of Segmentation and Lifetime Value Models Using SAS and the co-editor of Medill on Media Engagement.

Tom Collinger

Tom Collinger, Executive Director Medill IMC Spiegel Digital and Database Research Center, Northwestern University—Tom joined the faculty at Northwestern University in January 1998, served as Associate Dean and Department Chair from 2005 to 2011, and now leads a research centre linking consumer engagement across marketing communications platforms to purchase behaviour. He also serves as senior director of distance learning. He is a widely recognised expert in the areas of integrated marketing communications, direct, database & e-commerce marketing management, customer loyalty, customer engagement, and channel integration. He is a former Senior Vice President of The Leo Burnett Company; Former Vice President and General Manager of Ogilvy & Mather Direct/OgilvyOne, and former member of the editorial advisory board for the Journal of Consumer Marketing.