[雙語翻譯]外文翻譯—眾籌作為一種營銷工具（原文）

1、Seeking funding in order to sell: Crowdfunding as a marketing toolTerrence E. Brown a, Edward Boon b, Leyland F. Pitt c,*a Lulea ? University of Technology, Lulea ?, Sweden Crowdsourcing; Branding strategy; Relationship

2、 marketing; Social entrepreneurshipAbstract Websites such as Indiegogo and Kickstarter have attracted much attention for their ability to enable organizations and individuals to raise funds from ordinary people who cont

3、ribute for a number of reasons. This phenomenon is called crowd- funding. Crowdfunding permits organizations and individuals to obtain investments they otherwise might not receive from more traditional sources such as ba

4、nks, angel investors, and stock markets. A number of now well-known startups had their origins in crowdfunding. More recently, established organizations have begun to use crowd- funding websites not only as a source of f

5、inance, but also as marketing platforms. In this way, they have been able to ensure a ready market for their new offerings, with full sales pipelines, and to use the platforms as vehicles to boost brand image and gain su

6、pport for brand-related causes. This adaptation of crowdfunding for marketing purposes is not without its problems, however, and organizations would be well advised to consider not only the opportunities these platforms

7、provide, but also their limitations and risks. # 2016 Kelley School of Business, Indiana University. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.* Corresponding author E-mail addresses: terrence.brown@ltu.se (T .E. Br

8、own),ecjboon@gmail.com (E. Boon), lpitt@sfu.ca (L.F . Pitt)0007-6813/$ — see front matter # 2016 Kelley School of Business, Indiana University. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.

9、bushor.2016.11.004on a crowdfunding website. Naturally, the most significant motivation is fundraising. Crowdfund- ing gives entre ´e to financial support for people and organizations that do not have easy access to

10、 banks, angel investors, and venture capitalists. The process of founding and launching a crowd- funding campaign is also less time intensive than other options, as no legal applications or approval procedures are involv

11、ed. However, Gerber and Hui identified a number of founders who considered the marketing aspect of crowdsourcing just as important as– —and in some cases, more important than– —raising funds. Starting a crowdfunding proj

12、- ect introduces the product or cause to a high number of people and allows founders to form relationships with their backers that could be used to obtain feedback or to generate returning cus- tomers. Other motivations

13、that were identified include the need to maintain control (e.g., by self-publishing a book) and the desire to learn fundraising skills.Moisseyev (2013) suggested that for small firms, crowdfunding can be considered a mar

14、keting tool and that it can be used in three ways. First, a project can be used as a research tool to assess the quality of creative ideas. By tracking the number of backers and the feedback from social media, organizati

15、ons can compare their product ideas with those of competitors. Second, crowdfunding can be used to promote a new product, not only reaching people who back the project but also the entire crowdfund- ing community. Finall

16、y, crowdfunding can be used as a direct sales channel by rewarding backers with the first samples or versions of offerings and ensuring a readily available sales pipeline. A well-known example of a successful crowd- fund

17、ing project run by an established company is that of FirstBuild, a subsidiary of General Electric. In July 2015, FirstBuild launched a campaign on Indiegogo for a countertop nugget ice maker, the Opal. The project was ve

18、ry successful. While First- Build’s funding goal was only $150,000, within a month the firm had raised nearly $2.8 million from over 6,000 backers (Cowley, 2016). In an interview, FirstBuild Director Naturajan Venkata

19、krishnan highlighted the importance of the crowdfunding effort: ‘‘The benefits of launching a new product like Opal using the Indiegogo crowdfunding plat- form allows us immediate feedback on market ac- ceptance’’ (Freem

20、an, 2015). Following its success on Indiegogo, FirstBuild soon made the Opal avail- able for purchase in regular stores (Cowley, 2016). In other words, General Electric used its Indiegogo crowdfunding project as a test m

21、arket to evaluate the potential demand for its product before com- mitting to wide-scale distribution.In contrast, a different approach was taken by toy and game manufacturer Hasbro. Hasbro worked with Indiegogo to organ

22、ize a contest wherein the crowdfunding community was asked to submit game ideas. The competition received 500 submissions and the game Irresponsibility was selected as the winner. Hasbro then started a crowdfunding cam-

23、paign to sell the game, which raised $10,487 from 249 backers (Kastrekas, 2016). Although this ex- ceeded the fundraising goal of $3,500 by 300%, it is possible that the low number of backers is the reason why the game d

24、oes not yet appear to be available through regular retail channels at the time of this writing. Essentially, Hasbro used Indiegogo as a form of crowdsourcing (Afuah Prpic ´, Shukla, Kietzmann, EvaDrop, a shower he

25、ad with a sensor and timer to ensure no water is wasted; and the Droppler Water Monitor, a visual and interactive water gauge. Each of these projects was supported financially and raised aware- ness (Kastrekas, 2016). Si

26、nce the Indiegogo project by Shock Top was not linked to the launch of a new product, the campaign can be considered a form of branding, as it associated the brand with an important cause.Seeking funding in order to sell