T. (Thomas) Eichentopf MSc

During the recent economic crisis, marketing researchers have recognized that macroeconomic developments have a much larger impact on marketing activities and marketing effectiveness than previously thought. Instead of simply controlling for seasonal effects, more explicit attention for the macroeconomic environment usually leads to better insights. Particularly, modelling business cycles as a component of marketing effectiveness helps to identify ways how firms cannot only control and limit adverse turbulence, but even use it to the advantage of the firm. Therefore, this thesis aims to provide actionable insights and to enhance managerial decision making in three different aspects of marketing which cover both key stakeholders of the firm, namely shareholders and consumers. We show how investor valuation of marketing activities change in the case of new product introductions and in the context of committment to marketed sustainability. We further investigate how consumer reactions to product failure vary for different levels of consumer sentiment. We confirm find that marketing activities indeed have a strog connection with the macroeconomic situation, and we generally find that this connection consists of both positive and negative consequences.