Street level marketing (2000)

8/15/2019 Street level marketing (2000)

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Dr Stephen Dann *

School of Marketing,

Griffith University,

Nathan Campus

Ph: (07) 3875 6783,

Fax: (07) 3875 7126

Email: [email protected]

Associate Professor Susan Dann

Brisbane Graduate School of Business

Queensland University of Technology

Gardens Point Campus

GPO Box 2434

Brisbane Q. 4001 Australia

Ph: +61 7 3864 1105

Mob: 0412 144 102

Fax: +61 7 3864 1299

email: [email protected]

STREET LEVEL MARKETING

Abstract

Street-level marketing represents a method of marketing through involvement and

membership of psychographic market niche. It is based on combining the observational

methodologies of ethnography with the objectivity of marketing planning to assist goods,

services or ideas developed to service a psychographic market niche by a member of the

market niche. It represents a movement away from the traditional method of observation by

intrusion of ethnography, and a penetration by infiltration of niche marketing. Instead it

focuses on the development of a marketing technique based on market immersion, street level

credibility and business objectivity which can be used to develop low cost credible marketing

outcomes.

INTRODUCTION

Street level marketing (SLM) represents a new movement in the application of marketing

theory. SLM operates from a different perspective in that it uses a bottom up marketing focus

whereby the marketing is driven by membership, rather than observation, of a market niche.

It focuses on intra-niche marketing where the objective of the organisation or individual is to

meet the particular needs and wants of the group of which the marketer is a member. In

contrast, contemporary marketing theory tends to focus on top down implementation of

marketing strategies, aided and guided by intrusive observational marketing research,

capturing a single snapshot of a marketing environment and trying to use that to implement as

a long term marketing strategy.

SLM was developed to aid the marketing of niche specific innovations developed by niche

members to fill a need in their niche market. Unlike the top down intrusiveness of the classic

marketing techniques, SLM focuses on developing niche based marketing strategies. This

gives the SLM marketer the opportunity to use a wide ranging toolkit including ethnography,

marketing orientation and their natural competitive advantage of street level credibility. This

is not to say that SLM is foolproof - the nature of the market immersion offered by SLM has


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its advantages, but does not replace the need for good business practices to be used in

conjunction with street level marketing. Street credibility and innate market knowledge will

not stop a poorly run business from failing any more than relationship marketing, guerilla

marketing or the 4Ps could have saved it.

STREET LEVEL MARKETING DEFINED

Street Level Marketing maybe defined as the marketing activities undertaken by a member of

a psychographic niche to further the adoption of an idea, good or service, developed within

the niche, to meet the specific needs or wants of the niche. SLM's intra-niche focus gives it an

exclusivity of domain not found in other marketing techniques, because the SLM marketer is

a member of their own target market. This is the fundamental point of differentiation between

SLM and other marketing strategies - street level marketers and SLM campaigns exist within

the niche and are not imposed upon the niche by "outsiders". Unlike traditional market

segmentation, based on intrusive observational processes and adjustments to products and

promotional message to identify with the market, the SLM strategies are developed from

within. Intra-niche product development offers greater opportunity for marketer and

marketees to share a common understanding, and co-develop a product that offers a valued

solution to the market need.

The concepts consists of a series of sub- elements which expand and operationalise the street

level marketing concept. These elements are illustrated in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Street Level Marketing

Marketing

Orientation

Marketing Philosophy

Marketing Intelligence

Marketing Research

Marketing Activities

Source Credibility

Street Credibility

Credibility

Self belief

Product belief

AidmheilMarket

Immersion

At the core is the need for a marketing orientation without which street level marketing does

not exist, even if some parts of the marketing tool kit are in use in their intra-niche business

activities. Market immersion relates to the degree to which the street level marketer is part of

the niche that they are attempting to address with their products or services. As with the

marketing orientation, immersion is a critical element - without actual membership of the

niche, marketing activities direct towards the specific niche are not street level marketing. At

best, these activities may be guerilla marketing, traditional market segment approaches or

relationship marketing, but they are not the intra-niche oriented SLM concept. Credibilityconsists of source credibility and street credibility where street credibility is the marketer's

reputation outside their commercial transactions. The final element is "Aidmheil" [I'm-th'ell]

which is the SLM marketer's faith or conviction in their product service or idea.

MARKETING ORIENTATION: THERE'S NO BUSINESS LIKE A MARKETING

ORIENTATED BUSINESS

Marketing Activities


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The first determinant of street level marketing is whether the organisation engages in

activities identified with the marketing concept, and possesses a marketing orientation. Since

marketing is a total business concept, it is not necessary for street level marketers to have

clearly defined organisational structures which are responsible for the firm's marketing (Doyle

& Wong, 1998). Loosely translated, they do not need to have a marketing manager or

marketing division to be engaged in marketing. The organisation must have a focus on

determining needs and wants of the target customers rather than having a productionorientation, and the use of the marketing concept must encourage a long term focus of

profitability through market orientation (Gray et al, 1998). The advantage of the intra-niche

target focus in SLM is that the organisation has a propensity to be developing products for

people who are similar in nature to the producers and this leads towards a market orientation.

However, this does not negate the need for customer focus (rather than production

orientation) in the development of goods and services to service the market niche, since the

producer walks a fine line between producing for the niche, and producing for themselves.

.

Market orientation requires the organisation to exhibit an appreciation and understanding of

the needs of current and potential customers; the systematic gathering of marketing

intelligence and an organisation wide response to changes in customer needs (Hunt &

Morgan, 1995; Kohlit & Jaworski, 1990 and Narver & Slater, 1990 in Morgan and Strong1998). Part of the requirements of market orientation is the generation of market intelligence

pertaining to current and future customer needs (Gray et al, 1998).

Marketing intelligence

Wright and Ashill (1998) in their work on a contingency model of marketing information

looked at marketing intelligence as the scanning and analyzing of the marketing environment,

including the monitoring of competitive activities and changing customer needs. The value of

the contingency based model is that it moves away from the automatic assumption of complex

market research surveys as the default market intelligence gathering tools, and instead allows

for the use of non traditional marketing research instruments for intelligence gathering.

Gathering Street Level Market Research: Self Ethnographic ObservationStreet level marketing's intra-niche focus allows for the use of ethnographic research

techniques to be applied as part of data gathering for market intelligence. Unlike traditional

ethnography, which requires the participant observer to intrude into a society and then attempt

to gain acceptance and understanding, the SLM marketer is already a member of the society.

They have the understanding of the niche culture, and have membership of the society they

wish to study. On the downside, their level of immersion often makes it difficult for the SLM

marketer to maintain a level of objectivity or detachment from their research. The use of non

traditional market research techniques, and the qualitative focus of ethnography does not

however exclude quantitative data gathering from the SLM marketing intelligence

The use of the marketing concept and market orientation is required to focus the SLM

organisation to still maintain a business focus whilst providing goods and services that meets

the needs of the market niche. Whilst the advantage of street level marketing is that it

involves the marketing of goods and services by members of a niche to address needs of that

niche, it needs the objectivity and client focus of the traditional marketing concept and the

business discipline of market orientation.

Market Immersion


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Market immersion relates to the degree to which the street level marketer is part of the niche

that they are attempting to address with their products or services. It turns the classic

marketing question of "What business are we in?" to "What business am I?". The greater the

involvement with the niche, the higher the understanding of the needs and wants of the niche.

This in turn leads to greater opportunities for niche specific product development.

Involvement in the niche relates also to the degree to which the producer of the goods is

perceived by the niche to be "one of them". The advantages of market immersion aretwofold. First, market immersion is valuable for the developing the understanding of the

needs of the market by being part of the market, and through the ethnographic observational

techniques. Second, as exemplified in markets related to specialist sports goods such as

skateboarding or snowboarding, immersion and market membership increase the inherent

credibility of the SLM manufacturer or producer.

Credibility

Credibility is the perceived quality of being believable, based on trustworthiness and expertise

(Tseng and Fogg, 1999) It is often seen in the marketing literature as an element of

relationship marketing that needs to be developed over transactional histories, with clinically

planned "credibility" moments to develop an artificial relationship structure. Credibility in

relationship marketing is seen as the inherent believability of the intention of a company at agiven point in time (Herbig & Milewicz, 1995a, 1995b). SLM is concerned with two forms

of credibility, source credibility and street credibility. Source credibility is the extent to

which the recipient sees the source as having relevant knowledge, skill or experience and

trusts the source to be unbiased, objective and impartial in their dealings. Street credibility

relates to credibility by membership of the market niche, and relates to the reputation

developed within the niche by active membership of the niche, outside of the business

context.

Source Credibility: Business Reputation and Street Level Relationship MarketingStreet level marketing does not claim to have exclusivity over the operations of an intra-niche

focused, marketing orientated business. SLM is related to the development of marketing

focus amongst intra-niche focused organisations who serve small and specific target groups.Consequently, marketing issues such as relationship marketing also have an inherent value to

the SLM orientated marketer. Through adaptation and adoption of marketing techniques

associated with larger extra-niche marketing orientated organisations, SLM organisations can

also gain benefits from these concepts. In particular, SLM is heavily dependent on the

maintenance and transfer of credibility from personal endeavour (street credibility) into

corporate credibility. From a brief review of the relationship marketing literature (Garbarino

& Johnson, 1999; Selnes, 1998; Doneg & Cannon, 1997; Herbig & Milewicz, 1995a &

1995b), three areas of relationship marketing are of concern for SLM marketers: business

reputation, trust and credibility. Business reputation is seen as an estimation of reliability and

consistency over time in regards to the performance, and repeat performance, of a promised

activity (Herbig and Milewicz 1995a). Trust is the perceived credibility and benevolence of

the organisation, and the degree to which the individual can rely on the exchange partner with

the confidence that the partner will act in a fair manner (Selnes, 1998; Doney & Cannon,

1997). Finally, credibility, in the context of trust, relates to objective credibility which is the

believability of the entity's intention to perform the promised action (Herbig & Milewicz,

1995a; Doney & Cannon, 1997).

Street level marketing relies on these concepts heavily in that the marketing organisation is

engaged in transactions with members of its own community and market niche. Levels of


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trust associated with intra-niche focused organisations are expected to be greater than those

associated with "outsider" organisations who enter the niche by intrusion and imitation.

Consequently, penalties for failure to deliver in business are also expected to be much higher

for SLM companies. Membership of the community gives a higher initial credibility and trust

level, however, business reputation, and the tools of the relationship marketer, are still

applicable to convert this level of trust by association into business goodwill. In addition,

expectation of ethical dealings, and sensitivity to niche cultural values are also higher wherefailure to maintain niche credibility results in the company being seen as having "sold out" its

niche membership.

Street Credibility: Market Immersion and Personal Reputation as BrandingStreet credibility is a nebulous concept positioned somewhere between reputation, brand

image and the personal reputation of the business owner. Street credibility has been defined

as a command of the styles associated with urban youngsters who are respected by their

contemporaries (Collins New English Dictionary, 1997). For the purpose of this paper, street

credibility exists in a broader context than merely that of "urban youth". It represents an

intra-niche or intra industry reputation that is developed separately from the business

reputation. Street credibility is a mixture of personal and corporate reputation, peer and target

group respect and recognition, in conjunction with a recognised technical expertise, marketknowledge and understanding of the industry. It brings elements of consumer focused

measures such as market mavenism (Feick and Price, 1987), and celebrity endorsement

factors such as expertise, trustworthiness and target market empathy (Andreasen, 1994;

Walker, Langmeyer & Langmeyer, 1992). Street credibility is also a form of developed

reputation associated with expertise in the niche market, either through experience,

understanding or demonstrated predictive ability in determining or assessing trends in the

market place.

Street credibility is unlike corporate reputation or goodwill insofar as it cannot be purchased

or manufactured. Attempts to artificially construct "street cred" are often cited as guerilla

marketing. Guerrilla marketing focuses on grass roots campaigning, creating a 'street feel' for

a corporate product within the target niche. The difference between guerilla marketing andSLM is that guerrilla marketing is intrusion based marketing, whereby the organisation enters

the niche, mimics or 'borrows' imagery and icons associated with the target market in an

attempt to associate their product with the niche. Whilst this approach may have certain

levels of success, those campaigns that fail do so because the target market feel manipulated,

used, condescended to or offended by what becomes, to them, a blatant attempt to buy street

credibility. SLM differs in that it gains the street credibility from being part of the grass roots

movements targeted by guerilla marketing. Development of the product within the niche also

lends credibility to produce through co-production ownership. Whilst this is not always part

of the SLM approach, where intra-niche product testing and development occurs, it increases

the sense of community and niche ownership of the product. The street credibility of the

company is acquired through their business and non business reputation within the target

market, and by incorporating the niche into the product design and production phases this also

increases the street credibility of the product.

"Aidmheil" (Faith in the Product.)Aidmheil [pronounced I'm-th'ell] is a Celtic term, relating to the notion of "faith", which has

been adopted to represent the street level marketing element of "faith in the product, good or

idea". Faith in this context is not associated with a religious or spiritual concepts, rather it

looks at the marketing organisation's belief in their product, and the inherent potential for


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success related to this product. This final element of the street level marketing concept is

often referred to in the anecdotal evidence concerning entrepreneurship, new product

development and non traditional marketing applications such as social cause marketing.

Cothrel and Williams (1999) refer to existence of an aidmheil like state in cybercommunities

where users willing take unpaid roles of responsibility because of their passion for, and belief

in, the cybercommunity. Flores (1998) identified the role of passion in self identity, and it is

in the context of corporate identity that the aidmheil passion for the niche and niche product-solution is delivered. It is a both an internal characteristic that must come from within the

marketer, and an externally visible trait with which the consumer can identify.

Aidmheil is divided between product faith, which is the inherent belief in the validity of the

product as a solution to the needs of the niche, and self belief, which is the passion felt by the

SLM marketer for the niche and the product. It touches upon the notions of passion and

enthusiasm for a service, product or idea and this is infused into the product's branding and

imagery by the actions and statements of the supporting organisation. In addition, in SLM, the

focus of the aidmheil is often on the market niche and the benefits that can be given back to

the community and the niche in conjunction with the personal success of the organisation. As

with street credibility, aidmheil cannot be bought or manufactured, but can be nurtured and

encouraged by supportive organisations.

CONCLUSION, FUTURE RESEARCH

The concept of street level marketing is very much in its embryonic stage. As a concept or

approach, it attempts to explain the success of companies and products which have emerged

from their own market niches. Some of the most successful entrepreneurs in the world today

did not succeed through the use of traditional top down approaches to marketing which

evaluate the market and environment looking for a niche to exploit. Rather street level

marketing takes a bottom up approach of identifying a personal desire, within the context of a

social grouping, and then designs, promotes and provides a service to the niche market.

Further research is required to refine and apply the framework of street level marketing to a

wider audience. In the initial stages, there needs to be more case study analysis within the

framework undertaken before developing more specific measures, particularly for the conceptof aidmheil. This paper has presented an alternative view of marketing practice and a new

framework to analyse and explain marketing success.

Case Study 1: Applications of Market Immersion: Airwalk Shoes

Airwalk shoes (www.airwalk.com) was developed in 1986 to service the sport shoe needs of

the skateboarding, snowboarding, surfing and BMX market segments. Designers were

recruited from within the ranks of the intended end users so that skateboarders were

developing shoes for other skateboarders. This gave the company an insight into the needs of

their target niche. Airwalk integrated their product development with market co-production by

having end users of the product being involved in the design and testing, and providing

suggestions and solutions to design problems. In addition, selective recruitment of niche

members respected for their product knowledge (shoes) and product related skills

(skateboarding) also led to greater source and street credibility for Airwalk. The process used

a low level celebrity endorsement approach for the organisation by transferring the credibility

of the skateboarders to the organisation, not through endorsement of the products, but through

endorsement of the organisation. The endorsement for the company credibility came from the

designers' involvement in the market niche, and the organisation's depth of market immersion.

Aidmheil is also clearly present in the Airwalk organisation through their reference to the

notions of passion and enthusiasm as is illustrated by their web site specifying that


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"somewhere at the core of every journey there is passion, soul and heart", this being the

prerequisites for consideration for any Airwalk sponsorship. Because of the higher level of

involvement in the activities of the niche by members of the niche, Airwalk gained a higher

level of street credibility and source credibility than "outsider" brands like Reebok or Nike.

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Street level marketing (2000)

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