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This practitioner-oriented article represents a strand of research by the author into the practice of developing financially quantified value propositions for customers, which is the focus of this article. There is an appendix that spells out other meanings of the word ‘value’. The data used were gathered over a 5-year period from attendance and keynote addresses on the topic of value. In total, twelve conferences and 1,200 marketing practitioners were asked about their value propositions (defined in this article) via audience response systems in order to guarantee honest answers. The results indicate that fewer than 3% have financially quantified value propositions. This compares with a verbal estimate from McKinsey of 5%. The main conclusion, while only indicative, is that it is a very low percentage of UK companies. A review of the literature on value propositions failed to reveal any kind of quantitative process for developing financially quantified value propositions, so the author developed such a process and tested it on 20 organizations, global and local in order to refine it. This article sets out the results of this work and is summarized here as a six-step process. It is important to point out that the author of this article is deeply involved in the growing community of academics and practitioners who are striving to convince organizations that it is not only about creating value for customers, but also about creating value for employees, for all stakeholders and, of course for the Planet. All of this, however, is contingent upon creating value for customers, the major issue spelled out in this article.

Screen-printed textiles from remote Australian Aboriginal communities are a widely acclaimed and celebrated form of cultural expression. They bring substantial benefits to artists and their communi...

Objective: To determine whether people seen by the Far North Queensland Specialist Medical Outreach Service (SMOS) with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and proteinuria were treated according to established guidelines. Design: Audit of SMOS clinical reports from 18th May to 27th July 2012. Clinical markers were compared with the Caring for Australians with Renal Impairment and National Heart Foundation management guidelines. Setting: Reports covering primary health care centres located in remote communities of Cape York Peninsula and Torres Strait, Far North Queensland. Main outcome measure(s): The proportion of people with CKD and proteinuria on appropriate renoprotective treatment with an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor (ACE-inhibitor) or angiotensin-2 receptor blocker (ARB). The proportion of people with CKD and proteinuria reaching blood pressure targets as per National Heart Foundation guidelines. The proportion of people with stage 4 CKD appropriately referred to a specialist renal service. Results: One hundred and eighty-six clinical reports were reviewed; 48 people had markers of CKD. Forty-five of the 48 (94%) had been prescribed an ACE-inhibitor or ARB according to management guidelines. Nineteen of the 48 (40%) had blood pressures within the target range. Four of six people with late-stage CKD (stage 4 or 5) had been referred to a specialist renal service. Conclusions: This audit confirms the high rate of CKD in the people of Far North Queensland, although this is a highly selected sample. It shows appropriate prescribing of renoprotective treatment in most cases. However, it also highlights the need for a more vigorous approach to blood pressure control.

Purpose – This paper aims to review previous work in the domain of marketing accountability, an issue which has become of increasing concern to chief executive and financial officers. It principal purpose is to attempt an elementary epistemology, with a view to setting a research agenda for scholars in finance, microeconomics or marketing.Design/methodology/approach – The paper consists of a relatively catholic literature review of the domain of marketing accountability, exploring its antecedents in related domains such as strategy and finance and then proposing a research agenda.Findings – Much confusion exists in the literature about the dimensions of marketing accountability. This review specifies a researchable model of the domain of marketing and proposes three related areas – the micro‐promotional level, the strategic level and the financial, shareholder value added level and suggests an agenda for research for scholars.Research limitations/implications – Because of the enormous breadth of the relat...

Excellent marketing has always emanated from a deep understanding of consumer needs and expectations, combined with their right to be informed, protected and their right to quality of life. Evidence for this fundamental bedrock of marketing is provided. The problem is that in 2009 "marketing" just doesn't mean "good marketing", or even "honest marketing" and is widely seen as "mismarketing" in practice, largely the result of marketing's demotion to promotion and puffery. Evidence is provided for this view. The paper then makes some suggestions about possible new initiatives/directions for the discipline. These are: • the name marketing itself • making the discipline truly professional • making marketing fully accountable for its expenditure The accountability issue, however, is, in the author's view, the principal way to rescue the discipline from demise, so the bulk of the paper concerns this issue and sets out an agenda for research.

PurposeThis research aims to undertake a business theory application into the political marketing context, examine the degree and nature of its theoretical and practical compatibility, and develop a preliminary conceptual marketing communications (MCs) framework for small political parties (SPPs) in developed countries.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is conceptual and incorporates and interrelates the findings of existing business marketing research as applied to the context of political marketing. Through a comprehensive literature review, it adopts a multi‐perspective analysis and interrelation of three dimensions of existing theory: the behavioural, the contextual and the operational dimension. The paper eventually bridges the fields of political and business marketing, identifies the underlying causes of voter behaviour, and distils the critical factors of SPPs' marketing communications success.FindingsThe research identifies a number of critical factors of SPPs' marketing communications success and four principal SPPs' marketing communications findings: an increasing association between business and political marketing, an environmental context that stimulates and nurtures a symbiotic relationship between parties and voters, a predominant association of SPPs' critical factors of success with the concept of “perception management”, and the existence of a number of discrepancies regarding the application of classical marketing theory to SPPs. Based on these findings, the research finally develops a marketing communications framework for SPPs in developed countries.Research limitations/implicationsWhile the conceptual nature of the research is a methodologically viable approach to understanding the complex interrelation of the elements involved, so early in the development of a contextually new theory, it is also its main limitation. Hence, the research considers the framework produced to be preliminary and that substantial primary research is further required to test and refine the individual framework components and to provide the necessary validity to the framework in its entirety.Originality/valueThe value of the paper relates to its focus on small political parties, which are largely overlooked by existing research. Additionally, the research adds considerable value to academic knowledge on the fundamental discussion on the applicability of business marketing theory to politics, also contributing an analogous political marketing framework to the existing literature.

Like most physicians, we have developed our clinical skills by caring for patients, reading, discussing with other clinicians, and watching our mentors at work. Also, like most experienced clinicians, we rely on a relatively small number of basic rules repeatedly to guide our decisions in everyday practice. In fact, our daily clinical practice relies as much on this passed-down wisdom as on scientific data. These and other hard-won insights about the often-mysterious process of clinical decision making have traditionally been transmitted from physician to physician by example and via hallway conversation rather than via the written word. These rules are not meant to be definitive but have been put forward to encourage dialogue between clinicians about the process of clinical care and provide trainees with some useful guideposts in learning their way in the world of clinical practice.

PurposeTo show how the marketing discipline has lost its boardroom credibility by its own short sightedness over the past half century, and suggest how the situation might be redeemed.Design/methodology/approachPersonal reflection, based on long, broad and deep experience.FindingsWhereas success is measured in capital markets in terms of shareholder value‐added, balanced against risks associated with future strategies, the time value of money and the cost of capital, marketing management avoids such issues – this despite the fact that most of the capital value of companies resides in intangibles, the very things on which their actions have an impact.Practical implicationsSenior practitioners, business‐school academics and marketing consultants will have to change their attitudes and behaviour if the marketing function is to be restored to the boardroom.Originality/valueA call to arms.

Background Accurate diagnosis of acute rheumatic fever (ARF) remains problematic in high-incidence settings and especially in the Aboriginal population of Australia's Northern Territory. Previous investigators have demonstrated that strict application of the 1992 Updated Jones Criteria results in under-diagnosis. This study's objectives were to review use of the Jones Criteria (1992 Update) in diagnosing ARF in Australian Aboriginal patients presenting with suspected rheumatic fever, and formulate a locally relevant algorithm to improve diagnosis. Methods Patients presenting to Royal Darwin Hospital with suspected ARF were prospectively assessed during a 15-month period. Demographic information, clinical history, examination, laboratory and echocardiographic findings were documented in order to determine whether the Jones Criteria were fulfilled, and to identify alternative diagnoses. The hospital discharge diagnosis was recorded and patients were followed up 18–33 months later. Results Out of 35 patients with suspected ARF, all were Aboriginal Australians, 17 (49%) had a discharge diagnosis of definite ARF, 7 (20%) had definite non-rheumatic fever diagnoses (disseminated gonococcal infection, systemic lupus erythematosis, buttock abscess and other febrile illnesses in children with cardiac murmur due to previously undiagnosed RHD). The remaining 11 (31%) posed diagnostic difficulties because of mild symptoms that failed to fulfil Jones Criteria (attracting diagnoses such as ‘unexplained arthralgia’) or atypical features such as older age. Two patients whose illness initially failed to fulfil the Jones Criteria, who were neither diagnosed with ARF nor commenced on secondary benzathine penicillin prophylaxis, were found on follow-up to have definite and probable ARF, respectively. At least 29% (8/28) of patients without prior recognised ARF/RHD had echocardiographic evidence of established RHD, indicating that previous episodes were missed. Conclusions Individual mild episodes of ARF may be overlooked, with patients missing out on the timely institution of secondary prophylaxis. The Jones Criteria should be supplemented by active exclusion of differential diagnoses and vigilant follow-up including echocardiography. ‘Probable’ and ‘possible ARF’ should be recognised as diagnostic categories applying to patients not fulfilling the Jones Criteria but who nevertheless should be offered prophylactic penicillin at least until further follow-up. A set of diagnostic guidelines is proposed.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to offer a rejoinder to Michael Thomas's Viewpoint, “The malpractice of marketing management”.Design/methodology/approachThe paper offers a “comradely counterpoint” to Thomas's Viewpoint, discussing such topics as consumer sovereignty, marketing ethics, advertising, consumerism, distribution of wealth, and postmodernism.FindingsAlthough Thomas warns that “management” does not necessarily mean “good management” or even “honest management”, and can be “mismanagement” in practice, the contention here is that successful marketers and marketing institutions have already absorbed the message, embraced the notion, and taken the steps.Originality/valueThe paper sets a welcome precedent: the right of any reader to pen a rejoinder to viewpoint commentaries.

Acute rheumatic fever (ARF) and its chronic sequela, rheumatic heart disease (RHD), have become rare in most affluent populations, but remain unchecked in developing countries and in some poor, mainly indigenous populations in wealthy countries. More than a century of research, mainly in North America and Europe, has improved our understanding of ARF and RHD. However, whether traditional views need to be updated in view of the epidemiological shift of the past 50 years is still to be established, and improved data from developing countries are needed. Doctors who work in populations with a high incidence of ARF are adapting existing diagnostic guidelines to increase their sensitivity. Group A streptococcal vaccines are still years away from being available and, even if the obstacles of serotype coverage and safety can be overcome, their cost could make them inaccessible to the populations that need them most. New approaches to primary prevention are needed given the limitations of primary prophylaxis as a population-based strategy. The most effective approach for control of ARF and RHD is secondary prophylaxis, which is best delivered as part of a coordinated control programme.

A once-daily regimen of cefazolin (2 g intravenously [iv]) plus probenecid (1 g by mouth) was compared with a once-daily regimen of ceftriaxone (1 g iv) plus oral placebo in a randomized, double-blind equivalence trial of home-based therapy for moderate-to-severe cellulitis in adults. For the assessable recipients of cefazolin-probenecid (n=59) and ceftriaxone-placebo (n=57), clinical cure occurred at the end of treatment in 86% and 96% (P=.11), respectively, and was maintained at 1 month of follow-up in 96% and 91% (P=.55), respectively. The mean number of treatment doses (+/-standard deviation) given was similar in the 2 treatment arms (6.97+/-2.6 for cefazolin-probenecid and 6.12+/-2.1 for ceftriaxone-placebo; P=.06). The median antibiotic trough concentrations were 2.35 microgram/mL for cefazolin and 15.45 microgram/mL for ceftriaxone. Patients in the 2 treatment arms were similar with regard to overall rates of adverse reaction (P=.15), but nausea was more common among those in the cefazolin-probenecid arm (P=.048). The once-daily regimen of cefazolin-probenecid is a cheap, practical, and effective treatment option for moderate-to-severe cellulitis, and it avoids the need to use third-generation cephalosporins in most patients.

The importance of effective customer relationships as a key to customer value and hence shareholder value is widely emphasised. In order to enhance these relationships, the application of IT to marketing through customer relationship management (CRM) software, e-commerce and other initiatives is growing rapidly. This study examines the factors that influence the successful deployment of CRM applications, with particular emphasis on those factors which are distinct from other areas of application. Using the analytic induction method, success factors were derived from five in-depth case studies. Resulting factors underemphasised in previous literature include: the need for project approval procedures which allow for uncertainty; the need to leverage models of best practice; the importance of prototyping new processes, not just IT; and the need to manage for the delivery of the intended benefits, rather than just implementing the original specification.

Background: Numerous studies suggest that many surgical site infections (SSI) come to light only after discharge from hospital. With increasing trends towards shorter length of stay and ambulatory day surgery, post-discharge surveillance may become necessary for all infection control programs, but the methodology has yet to be validated and standardized. The overall aim of the present study was to examine the impact of effective post-discharge SSI follow up on the overall SSI rate. Methods: A prospective targeted surveillance programme of 1291 surgical procedures was conducted at St John of God Health Care Geelong using the standardized National Nosocomial Infections Surveillance (NNIS) method. Questionnaires were sent to surgeons and the results rigorously chased up. Factors giving rise to high follow-up rates and the relationship between follow up, attrition bias and validity of data were explored using a literature search. Results: A post-discharge follow-up rate of 98.7% was achieved. When the post-discharge data were included, the overall SSI rate (6.0% (95% CI: 4.7–7.4)) was more than double that in hospital (2.7% (95% CI: 1.9–3.8)). Conclusions: An effective post-discharge follow-up programme significantly increased the SSI rate. From the authors’ experience and a literature survey, possible ways to achieve high follow-up rates were suggested. It was also recommended that professional and regulating bodies in Australia be encouraged to standardize methodology and set minimum follow-up rates for post-discharge SSI surveillance. Increasing use of computerized hospital database systems for automated data gathering and processing should make this more practicable.

IT support for marketing planning can aid in the use of marketing tools, facilitate group planning, and support moves towards continuous planning based on a live marketing model of the business. But, amongst other factors, achieving these benefits depends on the style of support provided by the system. After a review of relevant decision support system (DSS) literature, describes here the findings relating to support style from a qualitative evaluation of a system named EXMAR. The findings support Little’s classic rules of “decision calculus”, such as the importance of ensuring that managers understand and can control the system, rather than the objective influenced by management science of prescribing an optimal recommendation. Also emphasises the role of systems in enhancing mutual understanding in a cross‐functional planning team, and hence in building commitment to the resulting plan.

Examines the issues associated with the creation and development of service brands in corporate branding. Initially considers the increasing importance of the services sector, the appropriateness of corporate versus individual branding and how service organisations have challenged the traditional approach to business. By analysing the success and failure of corporate branding in financial services, illustrates how thinking about service branding needs to change. Outlines the differences between product and service branding and considers how the fast‐moving consumer goods (FMCG) approach to branding needs to be adjusted for the services sector. Particular emphasis is placed on the intangible nature of services and corporate branding and how problems linked to intangible offerings can be overcome. Concludes with an examination of the roles that employees and consumers play in the delivery and strengthening of the corporate service brands.

Key account management is a natural development of customer focus and relationship marketing in business‐to‐business markets. It offers critical benefits and opportunities for profit enhancement to both sides of the seller/buyer dyad. This paper describes a framework for understanding the development of key account relationships. It has also incorporated a comprehensive guide to the current practice of key account management and comments on the challenges for the future of key account management practice. The paper is based on research involving in‐depth interviews with key account managers, their managers and their main contacts in the customer organisation. The scope of key account management is widening and becoming more complex. The skills of professionab involved in it at strategic and operational levels need to be constantly updated and developed. This paper demonstrates how key account management can be implemented and points decision‐makers in the right direction for better practice in the long term.

Despite vigorous attempts at eradication over the last 20 years, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) continues to be a major nosocomial pathogen in Australian acute care institutions. The epidemiology of hospital spread is now well characterized; infected and colonized patients provide the primary reservoirs, and transmission is mainly via hospital staff. The MRSA remains endemic in most of Australia's large urban teaching hospitals; occasional outbreak also occur, especially in intensive care areas. The level of MRSA infection is often indicative of the total rate of nosocomial infection within an institution and may reflect overcrowding, heavy workloads and under-staffing of wards. Standard precautions, isolation and cohorting of infected and colonized patients, screening of staff, hand washing campaigns, nasal eradication policies and increased staff education have all been tried, with variable success. There is no universal formula; local problems require local solutions plus commitment of local resources. Preventing surgical infection with MRSA requires the application of surgical first principles, and the routine use of vancomycin for prophylaxis is not recommended.

The study of how organizations segment their markets has traditionally taken a prescriptive and analytical approach. More recently, a number of academics and practitioners have voiced concerns over the evident gap between how such concepts are viewed in theory and how they are applied in practice. These issues have already been raised in academic papers, but almost entirely at an abstract level. Introduces a more concrete aspect to the debate by proposing a series of organizational archetypes which illustrate how organizations may segment their markets in practice. These archetypes are developed from a series of mini‐case studies which provide a basis for understanding how organizations may interface with the market at both an explicit and implicit level. Discusses the implications for both academic research and organizational practice.

Previous research with users of a decision support system for marketing planning generated a number of potential benefits and success factors for achieving them. Using a multiple‐case study design, these were tested in four organizations using a range of systems to assess the extent to which the previous results could be generalized. Benefits supported by the study were that systems can: aid in the use of marketing tools through automated calculations, graphics and guidance; facilitate group planning through support for fast iteration; aid the integration of cross‐functional and multiple‐level analyses; and form the repository for live electronic plans from which annual plans are a snapshot. Success factors supported were top management support, sufficiently wide team definition, a system that is seen as empowering rather than controlling, and definition of appropriate planning units. The study confirms the potential of software for reducing some of the barriers to effective marketing planning practice. Further research is needed to examine the areas where this study was inconclusive.

Responds to the recent criticism associated with marketing′s poor contribution to business success. Reviews the state of marketing in British industry, drawing on previous research and continues by describing the major changes experienced in the business environment, arguing that the future of marketing depends on recognizing these trends and responding to them. Goes on to describe the steps that leading companies, based in the UK, are taking to become truly marketing orientated, and the ways in which they are meeting the new challenges they face. It ends by highlighting the new opportunities for market‐led companies and concludes that marketing′s contribution to business performance is in its ascendancy and far from decline.

Few companies use a comprehensive marketing planning process, despite wide agreement on the benefits to be gained. This results from cognitive, procedural, resource, organizational, cultural, informational and environmental problems. While computers in marketing are mainly used for operational tasks, research in other domains suggests that decision support systems could assist in reducing some of these problems. A research project is, therefore, under way to examine whether and how software can be used to improve strategic marketing planning practice. An initial report on findings to date is given, based on a qualitative evaluation with six organizations using a prototype system. There is some evidence that appropriate software support can increase marketing skills, encourage wider evaluation of alternatives, support wider managerial involvement in strategy formation, improve internal data flows and enhance plan quality. Provisional guidelines on the nature of such systems are presented. Future research s...

A reply to a recently published report by Coopers & Lybrand, very critical of the state of marketing management in the United Kingdom.

This paper examines the marketing planning process of a number of British Companies. It finds that the companies who subscribe to what is described in the paper as a “complete marketing planning process”, are further along an organizational evolutionary development path than their semi‐planning and non‐planning counterparts. While the marketing planning process appears on the surface to be just a series of procedural steps, it does in fact embrace a set of underlying values and assumptions. Only the more developed and mature organizations seem likely to have the corporate culture which is capable of sustaining these values. Corporate culture is often intangible to the outsider, but can be very real to those within the company. It develops partly through the way the company has triumphed over adversity in the past, and partly through the so‐called “culture carriers”. These are the influential figures who, by their behaviour, communicate the organizational values they wish to see espoused. Because marketing...

The patient presentation of septic shock and purpuric rash is commonly attributed to meningococcal septicaemia. We describe a case of similar presentation where initial cultures and antigen testing were negative for meningococcus and the isolation of an unusual organism, Capnocytophaga canimorsus, was only made after obtaining a history of a dog bite and liaison with the microbiology laboratory. The epidemiology and clinical features of Capnocytophaga canimorsus infection is discussed, together with the antibiotic management of dog bites.

SUMMARY This paper describes a case history of the development of an Expert System in Strategic Marketing Planning codenamed EXMAR. It traces the evolution of the system from the formation of the DTI club two years ago to the launch of the prototype model. The paper outlines the technical and domain–specific obstacles encountered en route and how these were overcome. A number of conclusions are drawn from the project. The principal one is that there is a bright future for expert systems in the field of strategic management. Professor Malcolm McDonald is the principal expert to the club. Hugh Wilson is a senior consultant with Artificial Intelligence Ltd. He was also the knowledge engineer and the project manager. For readers who would like a simple explanation of Expert Systems, please refer to Professor McDonald's paper ‘Marketing Planning and Expert Systems: an Epistemology of Practice’, Marketing Intelligence and Planning, 7, 7/8, 1989.

In his introduction the author expresses surprise that such a potentially rich tool as the Directional Policy Matrix (DPM) appears to be used so infrequently in practice. Many academics share similar feelings about what they perceive as helpful devices or methods which should aid and improve managerial decision‐making. (Why, for example, don't managers attempt to assess the expected value of information?) Perhaps the answer is that the academics have failed to communicate both the nature of the technique and its application. If this is so then the burden of proof rests with the advocate and in this paper the reader is led from simple to complex issues which the author has found to be the causes of misunderstanding or misuse in his own extensive consulting experience.

High rates of this disease are the face of Indigenous disadvantage.

This research demonstrates that dog kidneys perfused with dimethylsulfoxide (Me2SO) in likely cryoprotective concentrations (2.8 M) can survive as the sole source of renal support when autologously transplanted. Kidneys were perfused in vitro with Me2SO in one of two vehicles: solution A (K+-Mg2+-rich) or RPS-2 (K+-glucose-rich). Me2SO concentration in the vehicle was gradually increased to maximum (2.8 or 4.2 M) over a period of 28 to 35 min, held for 5-10 min, then decreased over 55-65 min. All groups except one consisted of 5 kidneys perfused at 25 degrees C. Survivors were dogs living 21 days postoperatively. The first group received kidneys perfused with solution A; 5 dogs survived, serum creatinine on day 21 [Cr], [mean +/- SE] = 1.3 +/- 0.1. The second group received RPS-2 kidneys; 4 survived, Cr=1.4 +/- 0.1. The third group received solution A kidneys with 2.8 M Me2SO; 3 survived, Cr=2.7 +/- 1.3. The fourth group received RPS-2 kidneys with 2.8 M Me2SO; 5 survived, Cr=1.2 +/- 0.2. The fifth group received RPS-2 kidneys with 4.2 M Me2SO; 2 survived, Cr=1.7 +/- 0.3. One group of 6 dogs received kidneys perfused at 10 degrees C with 4.2 M Me2SO in RPS-2; one survived, Cr=1.4. Results demonstrate beneficial interaction of vehicle with Me2SO and the efficacy of 25 degrees C perfusion.

This paper serves as a wide‐ranging review of why, given the acknowledged benefits to be enjoyed by companies carrying out formalised marketing planning, most industrial companies still rely largely on forecasting and budgeting systems as their principal means of addressing the future. It identifies ten distinct and major barriers to the preparation and implementation of marketing plans. These are: Confusion between tactics and strategy. Isolating the marketing function from operations. Confusion between the marketing function and the marketing concept. Organisational barriers. Lack of in‐depth analysis. Confusion between process and output. Lack of knowledge and skills. Lack of a systematic approach to marketing planning. Failure to prioritise objectives. Hostile corporate cultures. The paper recommends ways of overcoming these barriers.

Reviews development of marketing planning literature and the success of its prescriptive advice, based on an empirical study of marketing planning practices. The authors call for a change of perspective, from the present state of concentrating almost exclusively on the “medicine” rather than on the “patient”. Stresses the need to recognise that there is a symbiotic relationship between the patient and the cure. The stages of development of a company are outlined, together with the role of “culture carriers”. One of the main results of the actions of culture carriers is that they can determine the level of acceptance of marketing planning—four levels are identified and illustrated.

The author describes the predicament of directors who operated successfully during the 1960s and early 1970s and who now are facing a new dynamic and competitive environment in which tried and tested solutions no longer work. He suggests that successful directors and companies of the future will have to move towards a greater strategic emphasis if a balance between strategic and operational planning is to be achieved. It is concluded that those companies who choose to undertake this transformation will find it a traumatic experience.