Jill Avery

Away, a direct-to-consumer, digital native e-commerce seller of travel luggage, is debating how to invest its latest round of venture funding. How quickly could and should Away scale and what were the most promising growth trajectories to maximize its potential? Three decisions face the founders. Should Away continue to invest in driving growth in suitcases and other travel bags or was it time to begin to expand into other adjacent travel categories? How should they use the results of the… Show more

Away, a direct-to-consumer, digital native e-commerce seller of travel luggage, is debating how to invest its latest round of venture funding. How quickly could and should Away scale and what were the most promising growth trajectories to maximize its potential? Three decisions face the founders. Should Away continue to invest in driving growth in suitcases and other travel bags or was it time to begin to expand into other adjacent travel categories? How should they use the results of the company’s first customer segmentation study to select target segments and quantify their growth aspirations? What were the right distribution strategies moving forward following a series of pilots that included company-owned stores, temporary airport kiosks, and pop-up experiences with retailer partners? Show less

On October 7, 2019, the Shiseido Group announced that it would acquire clean skincare brand Drunk Elephant for $845 million, a valuation of 8.5 times sales. Did Shiseido pay too much or too little for this brand asset? Every acquisition had to measured against the cost of developing and building a look-a-like brand internally. Would Drunk Elephant prove to be an integral part of Shiseido's future success and what would it take to unlock its full brand value? Would Drunk Elephant thrive under… Show more

On October 7, 2019, the Shiseido Group announced that it would acquire clean skincare brand Drunk Elephant for $845 million, a valuation of 8.5 times sales. Did Shiseido pay too much or too little for this brand asset? Every acquisition had to measured against the cost of developing and building a look-a-like brand internally. Would Drunk Elephant prove to be an integral part of Shiseido's future success and what would it take to unlock its full brand value? Would Drunk Elephant thrive under Shiseido's management? How much further investment would Shiseido need to make to realize the new brand's potential? Show less

As 2018 neared its end, Laetitia Toupet, international general manager of L’Oréal’s La Roche-Posay brand reflected on the brand’s achievements over the past year. At €1 billion in revenue, La Roche-Posay had recently become the number one dermocosmetics brand in the world. While Toupet was pleased with this feat, she believed that the brand was at a critical juncture. It was time to make some significant marketing decisions related to brand positioning to try to accelerate La Roche-Posay’s… Show more

As 2018 neared its end, Laetitia Toupet, international general manager of L’Oréal’s La Roche-Posay brand reflected on the brand’s achievements over the past year. At €1 billion in revenue, La Roche-Posay had recently become the number one dermocosmetics brand in the world. While Toupet was pleased with this feat, she believed that the brand was at a critical juncture. It was time to make some significant marketing decisions related to brand positioning to try to accelerate La Roche-Posay’s future growth trajectory. Show less

Nike’s selection of politically polarizing Colin Kaepernick as the spokesperson for the thirtieth anniversary of its iconic “Just Do It” campaign catapulted the brand into the media spotlight and made it a political flashpoint for consumers across America. Would the choice of Kaepernick positively or negatively affect Nike's business results or just generate a lot of social media chatter? As Nike’s management team watched some people burn their sneakers in protest on YouTube and others applaud… Show more

Nike’s selection of politically polarizing Colin Kaepernick as the spokesperson for the thirtieth anniversary of its iconic “Just Do It” campaign catapulted the brand into the media spotlight and made it a political flashpoint for consumers across America. Would the choice of Kaepernick positively or negatively affect Nike's business results or just generate a lot of social media chatter? As Nike’s management team watched some people burn their sneakers in protest on YouTube and others applaud the company's behavior on Facebook, they wondered whether inserting Nike into the middle of a heated political debate was the right thing to do or the most reckless action Nike’s brand stewards had ever taken, putting Nike’s $30 billion brand asset at risk? After all, on social media, it was easy to say that one would boycott or buycott a brand due to one’s political beliefs, but in the marketplace, other purchase criteria often reigned supreme. Show less

This technical note is designed to help students and managers understand the fundamentals of brand storytelling. It includes information on how and why consumers respond more favorably to brand information presented in story form. It deconstructs brand stories into four key elements: Message or moral, conflict, characters, and plot. It illuminates the practice of archetypal branding, using archetypal plots and characters to compose a brand story. It highlights the opportunities and challenges… Show more

This technical note is designed to help students and managers understand the fundamentals of brand storytelling. It includes information on how and why consumers respond more favorably to brand information presented in story form. It deconstructs brand stories into four key elements: Message or moral, conflict, characters, and plot. It illuminates the practice of archetypal branding, using archetypal plots and characters to compose a brand story. It highlights the opportunities and challenges of different types of creative appeals and storytelling devices, including humor, fear, romance/sex, irony, and authenticity/transparancy. Finally, it provides a roadmap and template for composing and telling resonant, relevant, authentic, defendable, and differentiated brand stories. Show less

Brian Perkins, chief architect of the $6 billion Budweiser brand was excited about 2018, in which the company would launch Budweiser into several new markets in Africa and Latin America. He was also feeling the pressure to finalize a global brand strategy that would define Budweiser’s value proposition and guide its development and execution around the world. The problem was that Budweiser actually had two distinct brand realities that differed across geographies and that often interfered with… Show more

Brian Perkins, chief architect of the $6 billion Budweiser brand was excited about 2018, in which the company would launch Budweiser into several new markets in Africa and Latin America. He was also feeling the pressure to finalize a global brand strategy that would define Budweiser’s value proposition and guide its development and execution around the world. The problem was that Budweiser actually had two distinct brand realities that differed across geographies and that often interfered with each other. Show less

Glossier’s proclaimed strategy was “born from content, fueled by community”. The digital-first, direct-to-consumer beauty brand had experienced rapid growth, with sales up 600% in 2017 and a customer portfolio that grew by threefold. But, its founder, Emily Weiss, was not complacent. Instead, she dreamed of creating the world’s first socially-driven brand that inserted its community into the buying experience so that the company was merchandising people, their opinions, and their content, just… Show more

Glossier’s proclaimed strategy was “born from content, fueled by community”. The digital-first, direct-to-consumer beauty brand had experienced rapid growth, with sales up 600% in 2017 and a customer portfolio that grew by threefold. But, its founder, Emily Weiss, was not complacent. Instead, she dreamed of creating the world’s first socially-driven brand that inserted its community into the buying experience so that the company was merchandising people, their opinions, and their content, just as much as they were merchandising products. As her team debates marketing strategies for 2018, they recognize the opportunities and challenges associated with managing Glossier’s rapidly scaling brand community. While the community’s support had emerged organically in the past, the team was now debating whether the company’s next phase of growth would need to be fueled by a greater emphasis on paid peer-to-peer sales representatives, professional influencer marketing, paid media, and a physical market presence. Show less

On Friday, February 22, 2019, following an unexpected and disappointing earnings report, The Kraft Heinz Company’s stock price fell 27%, wiping out $16 billion in market value. CEO Bernardo Hees had announced that the company had taken a $15.4 billion asset write-down, that the company would be cutting its annual dividend from $2.50 to $1.60 and that it was under SEC investigation for accounting irregularities related to its procurement process. $8.3 billion of the asset write-down was related… Show more

On Friday, February 22, 2019, following an unexpected and disappointing earnings report, The Kraft Heinz Company’s stock price fell 27%, wiping out $16 billion in market value. CEO Bernardo Hees had announced that the company had taken a $15.4 billion asset write-down, that the company would be cutting its annual dividend from $2.50 to $1.60 and that it was under SEC investigation for accounting irregularities related to its procurement process. $8.3 billion of the asset write-down was related to a loss in value of the firm’s intangible assets, specifically its Kraft and Oscar Mayer brands. As Kraft Heinz looked ahead to the future, it was time to recalibrate its brand management strategies. With nearly $100 billion in brand assets remaining on its balance sheet, effectively managing its brands going forward was critical to avoiding another brand asset write-down and to regaining the $15 billion brand value the company had just lost. Show less

Shiseido was in the midst of a six year corporate turnaround, trying to reverse the effects of decades of under-investment in R&D and marketing which had led to a vicious cycle of declining customer support and brand value. Would the CEO’s VISION 2020 plan, centered on four strategies: 1.) increasing R&D spending from 1.8% to 3% of sales, 2.) investing an incremental ¥120 billion in brand-building marketing, 3.) moving to a “think global-act local” matrixed brand management structure, and 4.)… Show more

Shiseido was in the midst of a six year corporate turnaround, trying to reverse the effects of decades of under-investment in R&D and marketing which had led to a vicious cycle of declining customer support and brand value. Would the CEO’s VISION 2020 plan, centered on four strategies: 1.) increasing R&D spending from 1.8% to 3% of sales, 2.) investing an incremental ¥120 billion in brand-building marketing, 3.) moving to a “think global-act local” matrixed brand management structure, and 4.) rethinking brand portfolio strategy, be enough to achieve aggressive 8% per year sales goals while simultaneously increasing the company’s operating margin from 8% to 10% in the highly competitive and slow growing beauty industry? Show less

Given the large and mostly captive audience that the Super Bowl delivers, advertisers are willing to pay a substantial premium—more than $5 million in 2018--for a 30-second spot. Firms vie to win USAToday’s Ad Meter, published the morning after the game, which reveals which commercials consumers liked the best (and the least). One key question is whether advertising on the Super Bowl is worth the expense (especially when you consider that the $5 million for a 30-second ad doesn’t cover the cost… Show more

Given the large and mostly captive audience that the Super Bowl delivers, advertisers are willing to pay a substantial premium—more than $5 million in 2018--for a 30-second spot. Firms vie to win USAToday’s Ad Meter, published the morning after the game, which reveals which commercials consumers liked the best (and the least). One key question is whether advertising on the Super Bowl is worth the expense (especially when you consider that the $5 million for a 30-second ad doesn’t cover the cost of actually creating the ad and generating awareness for it, which can easily add at least another $1 - $2 million). The answer to the question of whether advertising on the Super Bowl is worth it depends heavily on the advertiser’s goals and the extent to which they’re able to leverage social media before, during, and after the broadcast to extend the reach and impact of their Super Bowl ad buy. Brand awareness, social media buzz, and unit sales are very different desired outcomes, and Super Bowl ads can be more or less effective in delivering against each of these objectives. Show less

Using proprietary artificial intelligence technology, startup Tailor Brands set out to democratize branding by allowing small businesses to create their brand identities by automatically generating logos in just minutes at minimal cost with no branding or design skills required. As it sets out to raise its Series B, the founders make some critical changes to their business model, moving to a subscription model and adding additional products and services to automate other parts of the branding… Show more

Using proprietary artificial intelligence technology, startup Tailor Brands set out to democratize branding by allowing small businesses to create their brand identities by automatically generating logos in just minutes at minimal cost with no branding or design skills required. As it sets out to raise its Series B, the founders make some critical changes to their business model, moving to a subscription model and adding additional products and services to automate other parts of the branding and marketing process. Can algorithms, machine learning, and artificial intelligence help Tailor Brands outperform graphic designers and branding agencies in developing brand identities? And, can Tailor Brands differentiate itself from the many other logo generators popping up in the market? Show less

In early 2018, Nestlé announced the sale of its U.S. candy-making division and a select collection of twenty of its confectionery brands, including the Nestlé Crunch Bar, to Ferrero SpA for $2.8 billion. As the Nestlé Crunch Bar brand transitioned to its new owners, it was time for some serious brand analysis to assess the brand equity of Nestlé Crunch Bar and plot a course for its future growth. How strong/weak was the brand? What were its sources of brand equity that could be leveraged in… Show more

In early 2018, Nestlé announced the sale of its U.S. candy-making division and a select collection of twenty of its confectionery brands, including the Nestlé Crunch Bar, to Ferrero SpA for $2.8 billion. As the Nestlé Crunch Bar brand transitioned to its new owners, it was time for some serious brand analysis to assess the brand equity of Nestlé Crunch Bar and plot a course for its future growth. How strong/weak was the brand? What were its sources of brand equity that could be leveraged in brand storytelling? Which types of messages might attract new consumers to the brand and what might work to cause infrequent users to purchase more often? Did the product itself need to be changed? Were there brand extension possibilities?
Luckily, an old consumer research study on the Nestlé Crunch Bar conducted by Professor Gerald Zaltman was found on the shelves at Harvard Business School. The study used an innovative market research methodology developed by Professor Zaltman, the Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET), which had proven to be useful to brand managers hoping to better assess and understand their brands. The research methodology and raw data from Professor Zaltman’s ZMET study on the Nestlé Crunch Bar are presented in the case as tools to help students assess and understand the brand equity of the Nestlé Crunch Bar and map its future strategic course. Show less

For decades, American parents were warned to avoid introducing potential allergens to their babies prior to their first birthday. However, in 2017, the medical establishment radically reversed their position and now warned parents that delaying the introduction of allergens had the potential to increase their baby’s risk of developing allergies. Adeo Health Science was ready to act on this reversal, having recently developed a feeding solution that made it simple for parents to introduce… Show more

For decades, American parents were warned to avoid introducing potential allergens to their babies prior to their first birthday. However, in 2017, the medical establishment radically reversed their position and now warned parents that delaying the introduction of allergens had the potential to increase their baby’s risk of developing allergies. Adeo Health Science was ready to act on this reversal, having recently developed a feeding solution that made it simple for parents to introduce allergens to infants. The company was planning its launch strategy and deciding how to turn their product into a brand. A major decision involved their path to market: B2B through pediatricians, direct-to-consumers, or via traditional grocery retailers. Each path required a different type of brand and different types and levels of marketing support. As a new startup, Adeo Health needed to make the right decisions or it risked running out of funding before getting its product to market. Show less

On November 15, 2017, the gavel fell after nineteen minutes of fevered bidding for Lot 9 in Christie’s Post-War and Contemporary Evening Sale. Leonardo da Vinci’s 500 year old painting, the Salvator Mundi, was sold for $400 million, three times its estimate. Miraculously, the painting had been sold at auction by Sotheby’s for £45 a mere 59 years earlier and then later sold at a regional art auction in Louisiana in 2004 for $10,000. Its long and twisting journey from there to Christie’s selling… Show more

On November 15, 2017, the gavel fell after nineteen minutes of fevered bidding for Lot 9 in Christie’s Post-War and Contemporary Evening Sale. Leonardo da Vinci’s 500 year old painting, the Salvator Mundi, was sold for $400 million, three times its estimate. Miraculously, the painting had been sold at auction by Sotheby’s for £45 a mere 59 years earlier and then later sold at a regional art auction in Louisiana in 2004 for $10,000. Its long and twisting journey from there to Christie’s selling floor had all the markings of a bestseller, filled with intrigue, art world celebrities, and conspiracy theories. A sixteenth century Renaissance masterpiece, missing for 137 years, believed by many to have been destroyed, and then rediscovered, becomes the most expensive painting ever sold, all the while surrounded by controversy. Did the buyer pay too much? Was it real? Did it matter? Show less

HubSpot, an inbound marketing, sales, and customer relationship management (CRM) software provider had recently closed on its acquisition of Motion AI, a software platform that enabled companies to easily build and deploy artificial intelligence-fueled chatbots to interact with their customers. Should HubSpot replace its live chat representatives with chatbots? Was the company ready for bots to become the face of its brand to its prospective customers? What were best practices for… Show more

HubSpot, an inbound marketing, sales, and customer relationship management (CRM) software provider had recently closed on its acquisition of Motion AI, a software platform that enabled companies to easily build and deploy artificial intelligence-fueled chatbots to interact with their customers. Should HubSpot replace its live chat representatives with chatbots? Was the company ready for bots to become the face of its brand to its prospective customers? What were best practices for chatbot-driven CRM that HubSpot could teach its B2B customers as they moved to incorporate chatbots into their own CRM strategies? Show less

Brand valuation, the art and science of calculating the economic value accruing to a firm from its use on an intangible brand asset, yields frustratingly inconsistent, discrepant, and therefore, controversial results. While it is widely accepted that brands are long-lived assets that can contribute significant value to firms over time, there is no consensus on how to value them. This note outlines several different methods for valuing brands and exposes readers to the commercial methods most… Show more

Brand valuation, the art and science of calculating the economic value accruing to a firm from its use on an intangible brand asset, yields frustratingly inconsistent, discrepant, and therefore, controversial results. While it is widely accepted that brands are long-lived assets that can contribute significant value to firms over time, there is no consensus on how to value them. This note outlines several different methods for valuing brands and exposes readers to the commercial methods most used by firms. It discusses the opportunities associated with valuing brands as well as the challenges. Show less

In September 2015, hotel operator Marriott International Inc. completed its $13.3 billion acquisition of Starwood Hotels & Resorts, which added 11 brands to its already robust 19 brand portfolio. Marriott’s CEO acknowledged that the company probably didn’t need 30 different hotel brands, but claimed to have no plans to shed any of them. Marriott’s global brand officer was charged with making sense of the brand portfolio and designing a strategy that would clearly differentiate each brand from… Show more

In September 2015, hotel operator Marriott International Inc. completed its $13.3 billion acquisition of Starwood Hotels & Resorts, which added 11 brands to its already robust 19 brand portfolio. Marriott’s CEO acknowledged that the company probably didn’t need 30 different hotel brands, but claimed to have no plans to shed any of them. Marriott’s global brand officer was charged with making sense of the brand portfolio and designing a strategy that would clearly differentiate each brand from the others and a brand architecture system to communicate to consumers how to navigate among them. She would need to decide whether and how to prune brands from the portfolio, whether and how to combine brands through dual-branding and/or sub-branding strategies, and whether, where, and how to use the Marriott parent brand to endorse the remaining brands. Show less

Armarium, a two-sided online platform that offered consumers the opportunity to rent the most coveted, current season high fashion clothing and accessories from the top global luxury brands, had emerged from its first sales season with two distinct customer segments: the High Net Worth (HNW) woman and the High Earner, Not Rich Yet (HENRY) woman. As it began to scale its operations, it had to decide which segment was the more desirable target market and how to refine the company's value… Show more

Armarium, a two-sided online platform that offered consumers the opportunity to rent the most coveted, current season high fashion clothing and accessories from the top global luxury brands, had emerged from its first sales season with two distinct customer segments: the High Net Worth (HNW) woman and the High Earner, Not Rich Yet (HENRY) woman. As it began to scale its operations, it had to decide which segment was the more desirable target market and how to refine the company's value proposition to maximize value creation for both consumers and the luxury brands that supported the business model. The jury was still out on whether a rental model could attract higher income women who could afford to buy luxury brands and whether it could support the $400 rental price points Armarium would need to charge for its one-of-a-kind pieces with retail values that could reach as high as $15,000. The two founders faced significant scaling challenges, from how to establish guardrails around curation of the collection to go-to-market distribution channel strategy and customer acquisition strategy. Show less

With $52.5 million of venture funding in its coffers, could Brandless, an online direct-to-consumer seller of upscale private-label consumer packaged goods, take on both the world’s greatest brands and the world’s most dominant retailers to change the way consumers bought the essential items that filled their pantries? Industry pundits had long been predicting both the death of brands and the death of brick and mortar retailing in the contemporary marketplace. Would Brandless be the last nail… Show more

With $52.5 million of venture funding in its coffers, could Brandless, an online direct-to-consumer seller of upscale private-label consumer packaged goods, take on both the world’s greatest brands and the world’s most dominant retailers to change the way consumers bought the essential items that filled their pantries? Industry pundits had long been predicting both the death of brands and the death of brick and mortar retailing in the contemporary marketplace. Would Brandless be the last nail in the coffin? Show less

JPMorgan Chase has just launched the most successful consumer credit card in its history. The Chase Sapphire Reserve has exceeded everyone at the company's expectations, signing up over 1 million cardholders in its first seven months. Consumer acquisition was fast and furious following the announcement that the card would carry an unprecedented 100,000 point bonus, which could be worth over $1,500. With a launch plan heavily reliant on public relations, social media, and word-of-mouth, the… Show more

JPMorgan Chase has just launched the most successful consumer credit card in its history. The Chase Sapphire Reserve has exceeded everyone at the company's expectations, signing up over 1 million cardholders in its first seven months. Consumer acquisition was fast and furious following the announcement that the card would carry an unprecedented 100,000 point bonus, which could be worth over $1,500. With a launch plan heavily reliant on public relations, social media, and word-of-mouth, the product became a cult-brand among the previously resistant to credit cards Millennial target market. But now, management has to develop plans to retain these new customers long enough so that they become profitable to the firm. They are focused on making the Reserve card top-of-wallet and retaining customers through their one year anniversary, when they decide whether or not to renew the card and pay its $450 annual fee without the inducement of a sign-on bonus. A recent move to reduce the sign-on bonus to 50,000 points risks new customer acquisition growth. Assimilating the successful new product into an existing brand and product line was challenging. How should managers dynamically manage all three Chase Sapphire products to best meet the needs of diverse consumers in the credit card market? Which features and benefits should each card carry to best differentiate itself from Chase’s other products and from increasingly competitive products from American Express and Citi? And, how should all three be managed to continue to enhance the brand equity of the Chase Sapphire sub-brand? Show less

Mavi, a leading Turkish apparel retailer, had sales of $419 million in 2015, up 20%. Growth rates like these were becoming routine at Mavi. But, the path to growth was getting more challenging, and Turkven, Mavi’s private equity partner, was planning its options after seven years of investment. There were four growth levers Mavi could pull, but each involved selecting one growth path while neglecting another. Should the company invest in growth domestically or internationally? Should they… Show more

Mavi, a leading Turkish apparel retailer, had sales of $419 million in 2015, up 20%. Growth rates like these were becoming routine at Mavi. But, the path to growth was getting more challenging, and Turkven, Mavi’s private equity partner, was planning its options after seven years of investment. There were four growth levers Mavi could pull, but each involved selecting one growth path while neglecting another. Should the company invest in growth domestically or internationally? Should they change the price positioning of the brand to move up-market or down-market? Which value proposition offered the most future promise: functional differentiation, lifestyle differentiation, or celebrity endorsement? Should the company continue to serve both men and women of all ages or were there specific consumer targets that offered the most promise? Managers realized that these choices would not only determine the company’s short term growth trajectory but also shape the longer term value of the Mavi brand. Show less

CEO Art Peck was eliminating his creative directors for The Gap, Old Navy, and Banana Republic brands and promoting a collective creative ecosystem fueled by the input of big data. Rather than relying on artistic vision, Peck wanted the company to use the mining of big data obtained from Google Analytics and the company’s own sales and customer databases to select the next season’s assortment. Peck was betting that intelligence fueled by big data could outperform a fashion industry creative… Show more

CEO Art Peck was eliminating his creative directors for The Gap, Old Navy, and Banana Republic brands and promoting a collective creative ecosystem fueled by the input of big data. Rather than relying on artistic vision, Peck wanted the company to use the mining of big data obtained from Google Analytics and the company’s own sales and customer databases to select the next season’s assortment. Peck was betting that intelligence fueled by big data could outperform a fashion industry creative director at predicting the future fashion trends and tastes of consumers. Show less

While companies choose to brand their products and services in many different ways, there are some central tenets that help define an optimal brand portfolio and associated brand architecture. Brand portfolio strategy involves the design, deployment, and management of multiple brands as a coordinated portfolio of meaning-based assets that address the needs of diverse customers in a marketplace and maximize return while minimizing risk. It specifies the optimal portfolio of brands a company… Show more

While companies choose to brand their products and services in many different ways, there are some central tenets that help define an optimal brand portfolio and associated brand architecture. Brand portfolio strategy involves the design, deployment, and management of multiple brands as a coordinated portfolio of meaning-based assets that address the needs of diverse customers in a marketplace and maximize return while minimizing risk. It specifies the optimal portfolio of brands a company should maintain for comprehensive market coverage with minimal overlap, determines the role and scope of each brand in the portfolio, and designs a strategic, logical, and efficient brand architecture that knits the brands together into an interdependent system. Done well, it informs the allocation of investment across brands, identifies underperforming brands as candidates for pruning or revitalization, and pinpoints gaps in the portfolio that indicate growth opportunities for new brands. Show less

HourlyNerd, a two-sided marketplace platform for matching freelance consultants with small companies looking for help, struggles to define a growth plan for the future. The company is assessing three growth paths: shifting their target from small and medium sized businesses to enterprise customers, expanding into new verticals to become the Amazon of freelance labor, and transforming its business model from a marketplace to a software-as-a-service (SaaS). Each of the three paths was risky and… Show more

HourlyNerd, a two-sided marketplace platform for matching freelance consultants with small companies looking for help, struggles to define a growth plan for the future. The company is assessing three growth paths: shifting their target from small and medium sized businesses to enterprise customers, expanding into new verticals to become the Amazon of freelance labor, and transforming its business model from a marketplace to a software-as-a-service (SaaS). Each of the three paths was risky and required financial and human resource investment. Could and should the fledgling startup change its business model? Could it fundamentally change the way companies purchased consulting services? Or, should the founders play it safe by remaining focused on executing their original business model – a proven winner? Show less

Longchamp’s Le Pliage is one of the fashion world’s most successful products, a cultural icon across the globe. But managing the low priced, nylon handbag is challenging as Longchamp tries to move its brand upmarket into higher priced, luxury leather goods. How much should Longchamp focus on Le Pliage versus its leather handbags? How should the subbrand be distributed, merchandised, priced, and promoted? How does Le Pliage both contribute to and detract from Longchamp’s brand equity?

Demonstrating demand forces entrepreneurs to prove that their product or service idea has traction in the marketplace by providing evidence that a.) customers value it enough to purchase and/or use it, and b.) that the company can extract some of the value that it creates for its customers to power a profitable business model. Demonstrating demand goes beyond having a product or service that meets specific consumer needs. It also goes beyond preparing market size projections based on existing… Show more

Demonstrating demand forces entrepreneurs to prove that their product or service idea has traction in the marketplace by providing evidence that a.) customers value it enough to purchase and/or use it, and b.) that the company can extract some of the value that it creates for its customers to power a profitable business model. Demonstrating demand goes beyond having a product or service that meets specific consumer needs. It also goes beyond preparing market size projections based on existing products in existing markets. Demonstrating demand requires showing that one’s offering is compelling and competitive enough to gain traction in the marketplace via an in-market test. Only in interacting with customers in the marketplace can entrepreneurs truly provide proof of concept. Entrepreneurs must provide persuasive traction evidence that illustrates the magnitude of the market response, the momentum of the business along a growth trajectory, and the robustness and scalability of the demand. Show less

Tela is a second mover and a small brand competing against a savvy global brand that has preempted its attempts to position itself as a social mission driven, authentic Peruvian brand. How should Tela position its brand to best compete against Saira? Several positioning narratives are presented for debate, including authenticity, low price, social mission, and underdog branding.

This reading explores the landscape of marketing communications and promotion strategy. Promotion strategy involves crafting and communicating the voice and the story of the brand to consumers in an effort to achieve marketing objectives. Marketing communications translate the company’s value proposition into compelling narratives that can establish, maintain, or modify a brand image in the minds of consumers. Marketing communications can entertain and/or educate consumers and persuade and/or… Show more

This reading explores the landscape of marketing communications and promotion strategy. Promotion strategy involves crafting and communicating the voice and the story of the brand to consumers in an effort to achieve marketing objectives. Marketing communications translate the company’s value proposition into compelling narratives that can establish, maintain, or modify a brand image in the minds of consumers. Marketing communications can entertain and/or educate consumers and persuade and/or remind them to purchase. Various types of creative appeals (e.g., humorous, fear-inducing, seductive, informative) engage audiences, prompting them to think or feel something about the brand that works to induce them to action. Managers choose to tell their stories through various channels, delivering the brands’ narrative through advertising, sales promotions, public relations, digital marketing, personal selling, and other promotional vehicles that reach out to the company’s target markets. Current and potential customers consume these messages as part of their daily lives, absorbing them, interacting with them, and, if the messaging is effective, responding to them. Show less

Accor, the world’s leading hotel operator with a portfolio of fourteen hospitality brands (including Sofitel and Novotel) in 92 countries, prided itself on living up to its motto, “To open new frontiers in hospitality”. Accor was indeed contemplating how to do just that—but not by tackling a new frontier of the geographic variety. Rather, the firm was further exploring the digital frontier via a new distribution channel that would allow it to better compete in the online marketing space for… Show more

Accor, the world’s leading hotel operator with a portfolio of fourteen hospitality brands (including Sofitel and Novotel) in 92 countries, prided itself on living up to its motto, “To open new frontiers in hospitality”. Accor was indeed contemplating how to do just that—but not by tackling a new frontier of the geographic variety. Rather, the firm was further exploring the digital frontier via a new distribution channel that would allow it to better compete in the online marketing space for travel reservations. Show less

Digital was on Vice President of Strategic Partnerships and Programs Bridget Coughlin’s mind these days. DMNS had been dabbling in digital for the past few years, but had never fully committed to it. The time had come to establish a strategic vision, and to decide whether to designate serious human and financial resources. It was time to make some decisions about the DMNS’ digital future. The digital discussion was taking place within a larger strategic conversation about the primacy of the… Show more

Digital was on Vice President of Strategic Partnerships and Programs Bridget Coughlin’s mind these days. DMNS had been dabbling in digital for the past few years, but had never fully committed to it. The time had come to establish a strategic vision, and to decide whether to designate serious human and financial resources. It was time to make some decisions about the DMNS’ digital future. The digital discussion was taking place within a larger strategic conversation about the primacy of the onsite experience of the Museum and the need to get outside of its walls to reach new constituents. How should she balance onsite programming, offsite programming, and online programming to maximize attendance and deliver against the Museum’s mission? Was digital the magic pill that would allow the Museum to reach new audiences or was DMNS better off delivering a face-to-face museum experience within its own four walls or out on the streets of the Denver community? Show less

onefinestay offered high-end home rentals to travelers who sought a more authentic and local experience than a typical upscale hotel might provide. onefinestay's brand had been "hacked" together quickly during the company's early years. After five years of rapid growth, it was time to do a comprehensive analysis of the company's brand and its positioning in the marketplace. Marketing Director, Miranda Cresswell had spent several months gathering data and insights, and was starting to… Show more

onefinestay offered high-end home rentals to travelers who sought a more authentic and local experience than a typical upscale hotel might provide. onefinestay's brand had been "hacked" together quickly during the company's early years. After five years of rapid growth, it was time to do a comprehensive analysis of the company's brand and its positioning in the marketplace. Marketing Director, Miranda Cresswell had spent several months gathering data and insights, and was starting to experiment with use case scenarios that took a crack at segmenting the company’s customers. While segmenting in this way was intriguing, it led to a branding challenge – as a start-up, it was difficult for onefinestay to have the resources to support multiple brand messages in the marketplace and different segments wanted different things from their travel experience. She pondered whether there were other ways to group customers that would allow for a more universal positioning for the brand or whether the company needed to focus on one or two segments to serve. Who was the company competing against and how could it carve out a unique value proposition that would appeal to travelers and be differentiated from what was offered by other hospitality options? Show less

Paez, an Argentine start-up fashion brand, sold traditional alpargatas, a sleepy category that suddenly woke up when U.S. company TOMS borrowed the traditional alpargata design, covered it with fashionable colors and prints, and tied it to a social cause. Paez’s founders were keenly aware of the present and future challenges they faced due to the resources and capabilities of their well-capitalized and marketing-savvy competitor. How could a small brand compete against a company that had… Show more

Paez, an Argentine start-up fashion brand, sold traditional alpargatas, a sleepy category that suddenly woke up when U.S. company TOMS borrowed the traditional alpargata design, covered it with fashionable colors and prints, and tied it to a social cause. Paez’s founders were keenly aware of the present and future challenges they faced due to the resources and capabilities of their well-capitalized and marketing-savvy competitor. How could a small brand compete against a company that had captured the hearts and minds of consumers? Which brand positioning concept should Paez choose to best to capture consumers’ attention and interest and compete against TOMS? How would the choice of positioning affect the rollout of Paez’ distribution strategy and its product line strategy? Show less

Traditional definitions of branding often underestimate the value a brand has for infusing a choice situation with meaning. This chapter explores how people consume brands and presents three perspectives on the meaning of brands that have diverse theoretical roots in cognitive psychology, social psychology, and cultural sociology. Brands are important building blocks of the self and serve as relational partners, enabling people to build and enact meaningful lives. People consume brands to… Show more

Traditional definitions of branding often underestimate the value a brand has for infusing a choice situation with meaning. This chapter explores how people consume brands and presents three perspectives on the meaning of brands that have diverse theoretical roots in cognitive psychology, social psychology, and cultural sociology. Brands are important building blocks of the self and serve as relational partners, enabling people to build and enact meaningful lives. People consume brands to access the meaning contained within them and co-create that meaning through their consumption of and relationships with brands. Brands, thus, are meaning-based assets, so brand management, at its core, is a process of meaning management. Managerial questions related to how to build and extend brand meaning and how to change an existing brand’s meaning over time are informed by the illumination of individual consumer and collective community meaning-making processes. The chapter concludes with thoughts about the challenges of studying brands and the importance of interdisciplinary multi-method branding research that aims to understand brands in social, cultural, and competitive context. Show less

The Design Thinking process begins with empathizing with potential customers. Empathizing, being aware of, interpreting, and understanding the thoughts, feelings, and experiences of others, as well as being able to vicariously experience them oneself, requires the careful and deliberate study of consumers. Extensive use of qualitative methods, such as observation, interviews, and focus groups, provide rich, thick descriptions of consumer behavior and can be essential for building this… Show more

The Design Thinking process begins with empathizing with potential customers. Empathizing, being aware of, interpreting, and understanding the thoughts, feelings, and experiences of others, as well as being able to vicariously experience them oneself, requires the careful and deliberate study of consumers. Extensive use of qualitative methods, such as observation, interviews, and focus groups, provide rich, thick descriptions of consumer behavior and can be essential for building this understanding. Once product or service prototypes are developed, quantitative methods, such as surveys, experiments, and in-market tests, can help managers assess their viability in the market. Show less

In this note, we present a method, the 5 C’s Analysis, for collecting and analyzing information about the internal and external environments that firms face. This analysis will enable you to develop design ideas for a new product or service for your Global Partner that meet the needs of local customers, take into account the local context, leverage the capabilities of the company and its collaborators, and provide a sustainable advantage versus competitors.

Consumers in most product categories today are bombarded with too many choices. Even worse, the multitude of products that face them on the shelf often seem undifferentiated from one another, making choice even more difficult. This Reading addresses the principles of brand positioning and demonstrates how companies can strategically craft powerful, resonant, and unique brand positions to help their products stand out amidst the cacophony of the marketplace. Strategic brand positioning… Show more

Consumers in most product categories today are bombarded with too many choices. Even worse, the multitude of products that face them on the shelf often seem undifferentiated from one another, making choice even more difficult. This Reading addresses the principles of brand positioning and demonstrates how companies can strategically craft powerful, resonant, and unique brand positions to help their products stand out amidst the cacophony of the marketplace. Strategic brand positioning provides consumers with the answer to the all-important question, “Why should I buy?” The Reading discusses how to craft a brand’s value proposition for competitive advantage, through analysis and synthesis of consumer, company, and competitive factors. It highlights the types of brand positions companies can stake out in the minds of consumers, providing insight into the many creative ways brands can be differentiated from one another. It provides guidance for defending a market position through the illumination of the competitive dynamics of brand positioning. Special attention is given to disruptive positioning strategies that have the potential to reshape product categories. Finally, it presents the challenges associated with repositioning brands and the tension that exists between maintaining brand meaning consistency versus changing with the times. Show less

This chapter illuminates the dynamics of companies in competition and offers a process for planning and executing marketing strategies to effectively compete in a rapidly changing marketplace. Its goal is to arm managers with the information they need to make marketing decisions that take into account their competitors’ likely responses. It delineates processes for understanding the opportunities and challenges of the games firms play with their competitors, providing guidance for choosing… Show more

This chapter illuminates the dynamics of companies in competition and offers a process for planning and executing marketing strategies to effectively compete in a rapidly changing marketplace. Its goal is to arm managers with the information they need to make marketing decisions that take into account their competitors’ likely responses. It delineates processes for understanding the opportunities and challenges of the games firms play with their competitors, providing guidance for choosing competitive contexts that enable success, while avoiding contexts in which profitability will be elusive. It discusses how managers can change the games offered to them, by alleviating or assuaging the competitive forces that constrain them, and by opening up new ways and places to compete that are more conducive to growth. The chapter concludes with insights into how consumers respond to marketplace competition, and provides guidance for how companies can frame the competitive games they play to their advantage in brand positioning and marketing communications. Show less

From the editor team of the ground-breaking Consumer-Brand Relationships: Theory and Practice comes this new volume. Strong Brands, Strong Relationships is a collection of innovative research and management insights that build upon the foundations of the first book, but takes the study of brand relationships outside of traditional realms by applying new theoretical frameworks and considering new contexts. The result is an expanded and better-informed account of people’s relationships with… Show more

From the editor team of the ground-breaking Consumer-Brand Relationships: Theory and Practice comes this new volume. Strong Brands, Strong Relationships is a collection of innovative research and management insights that build upon the foundations of the first book, but takes the study of brand relationships outside of traditional realms by applying new theoretical frameworks and considering new contexts. The result is an expanded and better-informed account of people’s relationships with brands and a demonstration of the important and timely implications of this evolving sub-discipline.

A range of different brand relationship environments are explored in the collection, including: online digital spaces, consumer collectives, global brands, luxury brands, branding in terrorist organizations, and the brand relationships of men and transient consumers. This book attends to relationship endings as well as their beginnings, providing a full life-cycle perspective. While the first volume focused on positive relationship benefits, this collection explores dysfunctional dynamics, adversarial and politically-charged relationships, and those that are harmful to well-being. Evocative constructs are leveraged, including secrets, betrayals, anthropomorphism, lying, infidelity, retaliation, and bereavement. The curated collection provides both a deeper theoretical understanding of brand relationship phenomena and ideas for practical application from experiments and execution in commercial practice.

Strong Brands, Strong Relationships will be the perfect read for marketing faculty and graduate students interested in branding dynamics, as well as managers responsible for stewarding brands.
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How, in a business climate in which building relationships with customers has dominated both managerial thought and marketing budgets, could Filene’s Basement have fired a loyal customer, one who was formally and informally recognized as a best customer? This case allows students to reverse-engineer a fired customer’s relationship with discount retailer Filene’s Basement, from her perspective, to uncover the critical incidents and behaviors of each party that shaped their relationship… Show more

How, in a business climate in which building relationships with customers has dominated both managerial thought and marketing budgets, could Filene’s Basement have fired a loyal customer, one who was formally and informally recognized as a best customer? This case allows students to reverse-engineer a fired customer’s relationship with discount retailer Filene’s Basement, from her perspective, to uncover the critical incidents and behaviors of each party that shaped their relationship trajectory. The company’s customer relationship management (CRM) programs are analyzed to show how they influenced and encouraged unprofitable customer behavior. Show less

Traditional market research methods focus on understanding the average experiences of average consumers. This focus leads to gaps in our knowledge of consumer behavior and often fails to uncover insights that can drive revolutionary, rather than evolutionary innovation. This note outlines a process for studying extreme consumers – consumers who fall in both tails of a normal distribution of customers – with needs, behaviors, attitudes, and emotions atypical of the average customer. Different… Show more

Traditional market research methods focus on understanding the average experiences of average consumers. This focus leads to gaps in our knowledge of consumer behavior and often fails to uncover insights that can drive revolutionary, rather than evolutionary innovation. This note outlines a process for studying extreme consumers – consumers who fall in both tails of a normal distribution of customers – with needs, behaviors, attitudes, and emotions atypical of the average customer. Different tactics for leveraging the power of the fringe, product category virgins, customers with constraints, and lovers, haters, and opt-outers are presented. Show less

Explores the relationships formed between consumers and the Peapod consumer-direct grocery delivery service, as revealed through an ethnographic study of Boston-area Peapod shoppers. Three representative case histories are brought to life using extensive quotes from these selected longitudinal interviews. Closes with short vignettes describing the experiences of additional service users so that students can offer relationship predictions using process insights derived from the detailed case… Show more

Explores the relationships formed between consumers and the Peapod consumer-direct grocery delivery service, as revealed through an ethnographic study of Boston-area Peapod shoppers. Three representative case histories are brought to life using extensive quotes from these selected longitudinal interviews. Closes with short vignettes describing the experiences of additional service users so that students can offer relationship predictions using process insights derived from the detailed case studies. Together, the data-driven exercises are designed to deepen students' understanding of the development processes characterizing consumer-firm/brand interactions over time, toward the goal of more informed relationship marketing strategies and sharper brand relationship executions. Show less

Priya Paul, chairwoman of The Park Hotels, an award-winning portfolio of thirteen boutique hotels scattered across India, was in the midst of a brand revitalization program. Landor Associates, a leading brand consultancy had identified three areas of concern: the shrinking differentiation opportunity provided by the boutique hotel positioning, consumers’ negative perceptions of The Park’s properties, and a lack of consistency across the hotel properties in the brand portfolio. Competition was… Show more

Priya Paul, chairwoman of The Park Hotels, an award-winning portfolio of thirteen boutique hotels scattered across India, was in the midst of a brand revitalization program. Landor Associates, a leading brand consultancy had identified three areas of concern: the shrinking differentiation opportunity provided by the boutique hotel positioning, consumers’ negative perceptions of The Park’s properties, and a lack of consistency across the hotel properties in the brand portfolio. Competition was heating up and Paul had a goal to expand her hotel portfolio to twenty properties in the next ten years. Paul knew that she had to make some major changes to her brand, including changing her positioning, choosing a new logo, and selecting the right products and services that enhanced her revitalized brand. And, she had to decide where to site the new hotel properties to best compete against global behemoths, Starwood, Marriott, Hyatt and Intercontinental. How could she best revitalize her brand to stand out in a crowded marketplace, while preserving its rich heritage? Which changes would best propel The Park Hotels into the future? Show less

John Stack was the visionary Head of Digital Transformation at the Tate, a collection of four major art galleries in the UK, including Tate Modern, the most visited gallery devoted to modern and contemporary art in the world. Stack was the architect of the Tate’s “fifth gallery,” its online presence. Stack had guided the Tate through two digital strategy planning processes and his team had experienced much success in developing the Tate’s fifth gallery into a virtual place filled with immersive… Show more

John Stack was the visionary Head of Digital Transformation at the Tate, a collection of four major art galleries in the UK, including Tate Modern, the most visited gallery devoted to modern and contemporary art in the world. Stack was the architect of the Tate’s “fifth gallery,” its online presence. Stack had guided the Tate through two digital strategy planning processes and his team had experienced much success in developing the Tate’s fifth gallery into a virtual place filled with immersive and engaging content, activities, experiences, and communities.
Looking to the future, Stack was working to execute a new digital strategy, one that included digital as a dimension of everything the Tate did, both physically and virtually. This effort was raising important questions about organizational structure, marketing strategy, product and service design, and return on investment. What would it take to be a truly digital organization where digital was the norm? Show less

Orchestrating a compelling presentation involves a three stage process of conceiving, visualizing, and presenting that begins with understanding and empathizing with your audience, leveraging your emotional intelligence to craft a persuasive message that addresses their needs. Developing an engaging story, using storytelling techniques, can help you design a presentation that will resonate with your audience. Translating your story into visuals with impact and delivering it with presence is… Show more

Orchestrating a compelling presentation involves a three stage process of conceiving, visualizing, and presenting that begins with understanding and empathizing with your audience, leveraging your emotional intelligence to craft a persuasive message that addresses their needs. Developing an engaging story, using storytelling techniques, can help you design a presentation that will resonate with your audience. Translating your story into visuals with impact and delivering it with presence is critical to connecting with your audience in an authentic and powerful way. This note helps you organize and orchestrate a persuasive, inspiring, and powerful presentation – a presentation with presence. Show less

Many marketing educators use the case method to help their students strengthen their decision making skills. Rigorous class participation is essential to achieving the learning objectives in case method learning. One challenge for case method instructors is the assessment of students’ class participation, particularly in large classes. This article offers a solution that mines the practices of peer-to-peer feedback and crowdsourcing to enhance the assessment of learning in face-to-face class… Show more

Many marketing educators use the case method to help their students strengthen their decision making skills. Rigorous class participation is essential to achieving the learning objectives in case method learning. One challenge for case method instructors is the assessment of students’ class participation, particularly in large classes. This article offers a solution that mines the practices of peer-to-peer feedback and crowdsourcing to enhance the assessment of learning in face-to-face class sessions. Based on five years of data (N=7,025) across ten sections, the article demonstrates that crowdsourced peer-to-peer assessment (unlike self-assessment) offers ratings that are highly correlated with instructor assessment and demonstrate strong inter-rater reliability. Results show that crowdsourced peer-to-peer assessments are perceived by students as fair and accurate. Show less

Companies are increasingly experimenting with how charity might be used to increase consumer loyalty, brand awareness, and sales. But even highly creative approaches that garner a lot of buzz often fall short of sales goals, leading many companies to conclude, prematurely, that consumer philanthropy doesn’t work. Our research, in contrast, suggests that charity can drive engagement – when done right.

We explore the effects of having a large dominant competitor and show conditions under which focusing on a competitive threat, rather than hiding it, can actually help a brand. We demonstrate through lab and field studies that highlighting a large competitor's size and close proximity can help smaller brands instead of harming them. We find that support for small brands goes up when faced with a competitive threat from large brands, versus when they are in competition with brands that are… Show more

We explore the effects of having a large dominant competitor and show conditions under which focusing on a competitive threat, rather than hiding it, can actually help a brand. We demonstrate through lab and field studies that highlighting a large competitor's size and close proximity can help smaller brands instead of harming them. We find that support for small brands goes up when faced with a competitive threat from large brands, versus when they are in competition with brands that are similar to them, or when consumers view them outside of a competitive context. This support translates into purchase intention, real purchase, and more favorable online reviews in a study of over 10,000 Yelp posts. We argue that this “framing the game effect” is mediated by consumers' motivation to express their views and have an impact in the marketplace through their purchasing. Show less

A new retail strategy that moves from high/low pricing to everyday low pricing is dragging down sales of a century-old Spanish retailer. Can management wait long enough for existing consumers to learn how to shop in this new environment? Is new fashion-forward merchandise attracting new customers fast enough to compensate for older customers who are leaving?

Large competitors are often viewed as a major threat for start-ups and small companies; big companies have more financial resources, greater scale, market power, and brand awareness than smaller ones. However, our research finds that a smaller brand can actually benefit if consumers can see the competitive threat it faces from a larger organization.

Consumers have always had relationships with brands, but sophisticated tools for analyzing customer data are finally allowing marketing organizations to personalize and manage those relationships. With this new power comes a new challenge: People now expect companies to understand what type of relationship they want and to respond appropriately – they want firms to hold up their end of the bargain. Unfortunately, many brands don’t meet those expectations.

Capitalizing on the wild popularity of a great first product is easy; finding the next one is hard. A young entrepreneur struggles with how to expand the product portfolio of her fledgling company. Her initial smash hit product brought fun to a boring task – learning a foreign language – with the creative use of artificial intelligence. Should she continue to plumb the depths of her existing product category or should she innovate into new categories? Did her brand capital derive from “fun”… Show more

Capitalizing on the wild popularity of a great first product is easy; finding the next one is hard. A young entrepreneur struggles with how to expand the product portfolio of her fledgling company. Her initial smash hit product brought fun to a boring task – learning a foreign language – with the creative use of artificial intelligence. Should she continue to plumb the depths of her existing product category or should she innovate into new categories? Did her brand capital derive from “fun” or from language expertise? Would relying on “fun” as a brand positioning relegate her products to fad status rather than allowing them to develop into mature product lines? Would pursuing more serious innovations in the language learning space relegate her to a less fulfilling new product development career? Show less

A software company debates its strategic focus: should SparkPlace target small business owners or marketing managers at mid-size companies? The B2B marketing software company is debating which target market to pursue and has to consider market size, customer lifetime value, marketing return on investment, and other metrics to help it make its decision.

In this paper, we propose a conceptual framework to explain how, when, and why the introduction of a new channel helps and hurts sales in existing channels. Our theory separates short- and long-run effects by analyzing underlying channel capabilities. It suggests that order of entry matters, such that, for example, adding the Internet channel to a retail store channel should produce different effects than adding a retail store to the Internet channel. To test our theory, we analyze a unique… Show more

In this paper, we propose a conceptual framework to explain how, when, and why the introduction of a new channel helps and hurts sales in existing channels. Our theory separates short- and long-run effects by analyzing underlying channel capabilities. It suggests that order of entry matters, such that, for example, adding the Internet channel to a retail store channel should produce different effects than adding a retail store to the Internet channel. To test our theory, we analyze a unique data set using matching methods not yet common in marketing. Unlike previous research, which has predominantly studied the introduction of an Internet channel, we study the introduction of a retail store. We find evidence of cross-channel synergy, as the presence of a retail store increases demand in the catalog and Internet channels over time. Show less

Two experiments are reported that examine the effects of an ad campaign designed to link two different benefit claims to a brand. The findings indicated that recall for a subsequently advertised claim depended on the strength of existing brand-benefit links in memory. If prior advertising strongly established a benefit claim in memory, then proactive interference effects inhibited recall of subsequently advertised benefit claims unrelated in meaning. Additional analyses suggested that these… Show more

Two experiments are reported that examine the effects of an ad campaign designed to link two different benefit claims to a brand. The findings indicated that recall for a subsequently advertised claim depended on the strength of existing brand-benefit links in memory. If prior advertising strongly established a benefit claim in memory, then proactive interference effects inhibited recall of subsequently advertised benefit claims unrelated in meaning. Additional analyses suggested that these interference effects appeared to be a result of difficulties with encoding the newly advertised claims. If the original benefit claim was not as strongly established in memory, however, unaided recall of the subsequently advertised benefit claims was actually higher than if there had been no prior advertising at all. In fact, less accessible and memorable claims, whether they preceded or followed more accessible and memorable claims, enhanced recall of the stronger claims. Additional analyses suggest that these elaboration effects occurred because prior or subsequent advertising improved brand awareness and thus later brand claim recall as a result. Show less

Well-established fashion brand Eileen Fisher has traditionally appealed to older women. However, to drive growth, Eileen Fisher’s management team wants to target a younger demographic and has revamped its Fall product line to offer more fashionable styles to appeal to younger women. But, repositioning the brand has proven to be harder than expected. This case explores the challenges of appealing to new target markets, without alienating existing consumers. The case follows Eileen Fisher’s… Show more

Well-established fashion brand Eileen Fisher has traditionally appealed to older women. However, to drive growth, Eileen Fisher’s management team wants to target a younger demographic and has revamped its Fall product line to offer more fashionable styles to appeal to younger women. But, repositioning the brand has proven to be harder than expected. This case explores the challenges of appealing to new target markets, without alienating existing consumers. The case follows Eileen Fisher’s initial forays into social media as they chase a younger demographic and demonstrates the opportunities and pitfalls that await big brands when they enter the world of Web 2.0. Show less

It was August 2012 and the release of second quarter earnings was looming for CEO Ron Johnson. Johnson had intimated to Wall Street that the retailer’s second quarter results were likely to miss expectations again, following dismal first quarter results. These results were particularly disheartening given the company’s radical repositioning of its business model and its brand in February 2012. The heart of the repositioning strategy was a switch from J.C. Penney’s traditional high-low pricing… Show more

It was August 2012 and the release of second quarter earnings was looming for CEO Ron Johnson. Johnson had intimated to Wall Street that the retailer’s second quarter results were likely to miss expectations again, following dismal first quarter results. These results were particularly disheartening given the company’s radical repositioning of its business model and its brand in February 2012. The heart of the repositioning strategy was a switch from J.C. Penney’s traditional high-low pricing strategy, in which the retailer ran frequent sales to offer customers discounted pricing off of its higher day-to-day list prices, to a new pricing strategy the company dubbed “Fair and Square” pricing. “Fair and Square” pricing attempted to simplify J.C. Penney’s pricing structure and make it more straightforward for customers, offering them great prices every day, with less frequent price promotions. But by mid-summer 2012, customers and shareholders appeared to be voting with their feet, leaving the retailer in droves as it struggled to implement its innovative redesign. Was his new pricing strategy misguided or was it just a matter of time before customers fully embraced it? Johnson was under enormous pressure to turn things around quickly as the all-important back-to-school and holiday shopping seasons were imminent. Show less

I study the Porsche Cayenne SUV launch to ethnographically analyze how men consuming a gendered brand respond to perceived brand gender contamination. Consumers’ communal gender work in a Porsche brand community is analyzed to uncover brand gender contamination’s effects on the identity projects of consumers, the brand as an identity marker, and the prevailing gender order in the group. Through the promulgation of gender stereotypes, Porsche owners stratify themselves along gender lines and… Show more

I study the Porsche Cayenne SUV launch to ethnographically analyze how men consuming a gendered brand respond to perceived brand gender contamination. Consumers’ communal gender work in a Porsche brand community is analyzed to uncover brand gender contamination’s effects on the identity projects of consumers, the brand as an identity marker, and the prevailing gender order in the group. Through the promulgation of gender stereotypes, Porsche owners stratify themselves along gender lines and create an ingroup sharply defined by masculinity and an outgroup defined by femininity. The construction of social barriers limits access to Porsche’s meanings to those who achieve masculine ideals and causes SUV owners to resort to hyper-masculine behaviors to combat exclusion. Consumers’ gender work reverses the firm’s efforts to gender-bend the brand, reinstates Porsche as a masculine marker, and reifies particular definitions of masculinity in the community. Show less

The practice of firing customers has recently become more prevalent as firms try to maximize the customer lifetime value of their customer portfolios. This chapter traces the relationship trajectory of a customer fired by Filene’s Basement, a retailer offering fashion goods at discounted prices, to illuminate that a “bad customer” is often the result of a customer relationship that was poorly managed at the hands of the firm. Perhaps even more ironically, the case illustrates that firing… Show more

The practice of firing customers has recently become more prevalent as firms try to maximize the customer lifetime value of their customer portfolios. This chapter traces the relationship trajectory of a customer fired by Filene’s Basement, a retailer offering fashion goods at discounted prices, to illuminate that a “bad customer” is often the result of a customer relationship that was poorly managed at the hands of the firm. Perhaps even more ironically, the case illustrates that firing customers is often a case of blaming the victim: many managers remain unaware of their own roles in creating the unprofitable customers they seek to shed. This chapter traces how company actions taken in the name of customer relationship management (CRM) contribute to the creation and demise of a new type of commercial relationship: the best customer. We reveal how a company’s CRM programs can transform best customers from highly profitable, loyal customers into high maintenance customers whose value stemming from their frequent purchasing is eroded by their increasing cost-to-serve. Show less

In contemporary culture, brands play important relational roles, linking consumers to others and serving as relational partners. This chapter provides an understanding of the relational roles of brands to illuminate why and how consumers connect with brands and how those connections enable consumers to relate to each other. Moving away from an economic definition of marketing relationships as exchange-based, the chapter provides a more nuanced understanding of consumer-brand bonds and… Show more

In contemporary culture, brands play important relational roles, linking consumers to others and serving as relational partners. This chapter provides an understanding of the relational roles of brands to illuminate why and how consumers connect with brands and how those connections enable consumers to relate to each other. Moving away from an economic definition of marketing relationships as exchange-based, the chapter provides a more nuanced understanding of consumer-brand bonds and highlights the core processes that drive customer relationship development. It cautions managers not to try to “manage” their customer relationships, but rather, to negotiate them with consumers, providing a fresh approach to CRM. Show less

In response to difficult economic and social realities, firms can successfully both inspire, and increase their appeal to consumers by strategically using underdog branding.

We introduce the concept of an underdog brand biography to describe an emerging trend in branding in which firms author a historical account of their humble origins, lack of resources, and immense struggle against the odds. We identify two essential components of an underdog biography: external disadvantage, and passion and determination. We demonstrate that an underdog brand biography can increase purchase intentions, real choice, and brand loyalty. Four studies show that the underdog… Show more

We introduce the concept of an underdog brand biography to describe an emerging trend in branding in which firms author a historical account of their humble origins, lack of resources, and immense struggle against the odds. We identify two essential components of an underdog biography: external disadvantage, and passion and determination. We demonstrate that an underdog brand biography can increase purchase intentions, real choice, and brand loyalty. Four studies show that the underdog effect is mediated by identification with the brand, and is stronger for consumers who self-identify as underdogs. Show less

Research in customer behavior has revealed that they way humans respond to brands is simply an extension of the way they instinctively perceive, judge, and behave towards one another. Understanding how consumers judge brands using social processes akin to those used in human interaction allows us to unlock the social psychological power of our brands, making them more compelling and attractive as relationship partners for consumers.

This case discusses the concept of customer centricity, aligning the resources of your organization to effectively respond to the ever-changing needs of the customer, while building mutually profitable relationships, in the context of EMC, the world’s leading information infrastructure company. EMC has built a corporate culture which puts customers squarely in the center of their business mission and has created structures and processes to enable customer centricity to infuse the organization.… Show more

This case discusses the concept of customer centricity, aligning the resources of your organization to effectively respond to the ever-changing needs of the customer, while building mutually profitable relationships, in the context of EMC, the world’s leading information infrastructure company. EMC has built a corporate culture which puts customers squarely in the center of their business mission and has created structures and processes to enable customer centricity to infuse the organization. However, the firm has grown organically and through acquisitions and is now managing a diverse product line and a diverse customer base which includes large firms and small firms, as well as individual consumers. Moving to a VAR sales model has also distanced EMC from its customers. Customer centricity, as historically practiced by EMC, is becoming more difficult to execute and may not be feasible or cost effective, given the large variance in customer lifetime value across the customer portfolio. The case introduces students to fundamental Web 2.0 concepts and allows them to grapple with whether EMC can use “high-tech” customer service to replace or supplement “high-touch” customer service. Show less

Entrepreneur Gauri Nanda is looking to capitalize on the success of her quirky alarm clock, Clocky, to build a diversified product line and a brand devoted to adding humor and fun to everyday objects for the home. Hoping to avoid becoming a “one-hit-wonder,” Nanda has developed several new product concepts and is analyzing consumer research to assess which ones have the most potential for the marketplace. Along the way, she is trying to decipher Clocky’s formula for success so that she can… Show more

Entrepreneur Gauri Nanda is looking to capitalize on the success of her quirky alarm clock, Clocky, to build a diversified product line and a brand devoted to adding humor and fun to everyday objects for the home. Hoping to avoid becoming a “one-hit-wonder,” Nanda has developed several new product concepts and is analyzing consumer research to assess which ones have the most potential for the marketplace. Along the way, she is trying to decipher Clocky’s formula for success so that she can try to replicate its meteoric rise to fame as she builds her company’s brand. At the same time, she is trying to extend Clocky’s life cycle, combating flattening sales, retail distribution losses, and counterfeit knock-offs, to avoid having the product become just a fad. Show less

For the first time in 23 years, PepsiCo did not invest in Superbowl advertising for its iconic brand in 2010. Instead, the company diverted the $20 million it would have spent on the game to the social media fueled “Pepsi Refresh Project,” where it invited consumers to generate ideas to “refresh everything” in their worlds. Ideas were vetted and posted on the web where consumers voted for their favorites which Pepsi then funded with grants ranging from $5,000 to $250,000 for health… Show more

For the first time in 23 years, PepsiCo did not invest in Superbowl advertising for its iconic brand in 2010. Instead, the company diverted the $20 million it would have spent on the game to the social media fueled “Pepsi Refresh Project,” where it invited consumers to generate ideas to “refresh everything” in their worlds. Ideas were vetted and posted on the web where consumers voted for their favorites which Pepsi then funded with grants ranging from $5,000 to $250,000 for health, environmental, social, educational, and cultural causes. The case analyzes how Web 2.0 is changing cause-related-marketing and compares the benefits and risks of traditional branding and social media branding. Pepsi’s return on investment is analyzed in the context of emerging brand health and social media metrics. Show less

This chapter presents a brand management paradigm based on the foundational principles of relationships. (1) Brand relationships are a means to an end: brand relationship managers must consider the whole person and understand how the brand adds meaning into people’s lives. (2) Brand relationships are diverse and multi-faceted: relationship management requires sensitivity to the operative contract and relationship form. (3) Brand relationships are process phenomena: savvy relationship… Show more

This chapter presents a brand management paradigm based on the foundational principles of relationships. (1) Brand relationships are a means to an end: brand relationship managers must consider the whole person and understand how the brand adds meaning into people’s lives. (2) Brand relationships are diverse and multi-faceted: relationship management requires sensitivity to the operative contract and relationship form. (3) Brand relationships are process phenomena: savvy relationship strategies consider the dimensions on which relationship develop and address the causes that drive evolution and change over time. Our perspective enlightens current customer relationship management (CRM) practice by providing a deeper appreciation of the ‘R’ in CRM. Show less

Customer relationship management (CRM) has proven an effective management system for (re)allocating firm resources across the customer base. Although the data generated by CRM systems do much to help increase firm profits, they provide little insight to guide managers in cultivating customer relationships in the true spirit of the term. This article calls for a refocus of CRM back to the relationship roots from which the practice was inspired. By leveraging data from a longitudinal… Show more

Customer relationship management (CRM) has proven an effective management system for (re)allocating firm resources across the customer base. Although the data generated by CRM systems do much to help increase firm profits, they provide little insight to guide managers in cultivating customer relationships in the true spirit of the term. This article calls for a refocus of CRM back to the relationship roots from which the practice was inspired. By leveraging data from a longitudinal, ethnographic study of consumers’ experiences with an Internet grocery service, a in-depth case study of a loyal service customer, and critical incident interviews concerning severed brand loyal relations, we show how firms unwittingly destroy relationship equity—even with their best customers – by the blind application of CRM principles dedicated to firm-centric economics. By enlivening consumers’ interpretations of the relationship activities engaged in by firms, this research offers insight into the efficacy and implication of such marketing practices, and the ways in which the CRM activities are often misaligned. Show less

Brands rushed into social media, viewing social networks, video sharing, online communities, and microblogging sites as the panacea to diminishing returns for traditional brand building routes. But, as more branding activity moves to the web, marketers are confronted with the stark realization that social media was made for people, not for brands. In this paper, we explore the emergent cultural landscape of open source branding, and identify marketing strategies directed at the hunt for… Show more

Brands rushed into social media, viewing social networks, video sharing, online communities, and microblogging sites as the panacea to diminishing returns for traditional brand building routes. But, as more branding activity moves to the web, marketers are confronted with the stark realization that social media was made for people, not for brands. In this paper, we explore the emergent cultural landscape of open source branding, and identify marketing strategies directed at the hunt for consumer engagement on the people's web. These strategies present a paradox, for to gain coveted resonance, the brand must relinquish control. We discuss how web-based power struggles between marketer and consumer brand authors challenge accepted branding truths and paradigms: where short-term brands can trump long-term icons, where marketing looks more like public relations, where brand building gives way to brand protection, and brand value is driven by risk, not returns. Show less

Everyone loves a scrappy underdog. Brands can profit from using an underdog positioning -- in fact, stores are teeming with underdog products. The biographies of underdog brands share two important narrative components: a disadvantaged position (they highlight a company's humble beginnings and portray it as being outgunned by bigger, better resourced competitors) and a passion and determination to triumph against the odds.

A socially-conscious start-up struggles to compete against behemoth Amazon in the online bookselling industry. As the company grows, the business model is changing and founder Xavier Helgesen must decide whether to expand into selling new books, how to adjust their pricing and donation models, and how to reposition their donation communications. As the industry shifts, the founders find themselves working harder to build brand awareness for their fledgling brand and to manage and incentivize… Show more

A socially-conscious start-up struggles to compete against behemoth Amazon in the online bookselling industry. As the company grows, the business model is changing and founder Xavier Helgesen must decide whether to expand into selling new books, how to adjust their pricing and donation models, and how to reposition their donation communications. As the industry shifts, the founders find themselves working harder to build brand awareness for their fledgling brand and to manage and incentivize their non-profit partners. A for-profit company with a social mission, Better World Books comes under public scrutiny as they begin to turn a profit. Show less

In this case, students wrestle with the trade-offs inherent in rapidly growing a customer base and retaining customers over time. HubSpot, an entrepreneurial start-up selling Web 2.0 software-as-a-service to B2B and B2C customers, is under pressure from its venture capital backers to acquire new customers at a rapid rate and to maintain a low level of customer churn. In the case, students explore the drivers of customer churn and uncover opportunities to increase customer retention across the… Show more

In this case, students wrestle with the trade-offs inherent in rapidly growing a customer base and retaining customers over time. HubSpot, an entrepreneurial start-up selling Web 2.0 software-as-a-service to B2B and B2C customers, is under pressure from its venture capital backers to acquire new customers at a rapid rate and to maintain a low level of customer churn. In the case, students explore the drivers of customer churn and uncover opportunities to increase customer retention across the customer selection, selling, and training processes. Students assess a company model used to predict which customers will churn and suggest alternatives to improve the model’s prediction. Students develop programs to reduce churn post-hoc and then reengineer the company’s marketing and customer relationship management processes to manage churn proactively through market segmentation and targeting, product design, and customer interactions. Show less

Can an online discussion forum supply insight into the evolution of brand meaning? In 2003 Porsche launched a sport utility vehicle, dividing Porsche purists from newcomers to the brand. Vocal members of online and offline Porsche communities ridiculed the Cayenne SUV and disapproved of the new breed of driver. Some opposed offering Porsche club membership to them, and some even refused to extend the fraternal Porsche ‘wave’ or headlight flicking to them on the road. Porsche’s values of speed… Show more

Can an online discussion forum supply insight into the evolution of brand meaning? In 2003 Porsche launched a sport utility vehicle, dividing Porsche purists from newcomers to the brand. Vocal members of online and offline Porsche communities ridiculed the Cayenne SUV and disapproved of the new breed of driver. Some opposed offering Porsche club membership to them, and some even refused to extend the fraternal Porsche ‘wave’ or headlight flicking to them on the road. Porsche’s values of speed, luxury, and a certain masculine zeal resonated strongly with its devotees, while drivers of the Cayenne (which came to be known as ‘the SUV for soccer moms’) tended to be safety-conscious, family-oriented, and conservative. Evolving debates on the forum allow a class to debate whether the brand had strayed too far from its core values and was at risk. Show less

Throughout history, marketers have created gendered brands, creating their brands and the stories they crafted about them in their advertising to appeal either to men or to women. Gendered brands deliver value to consumers, and therefore, deliver value to marketers. “Gender-bending,” taking a brand that has historically been targeted to one gender and targeting it to the other gender, is becoming a more common occurrence. This can be a risky strategy. Consumers who rely on the brand’s… Show more

Throughout history, marketers have created gendered brands, creating their brands and the stories they crafted about them in their advertising to appeal either to men or to women. Gendered brands deliver value to consumers, and therefore, deliver value to marketers. “Gender-bending,” taking a brand that has historically been targeted to one gender and targeting it to the other gender, is becoming a more common occurrence. This can be a risky strategy. Consumers who rely on the brand’s gender meanings feel threatened when the brand becomes associated with the opposite gender. This chapter traces what happens when brands traditionally used by one gender are targeted toward the other and shows the detrimental long term branding effects of gender-bending. Show less

This series of technical notes and interactive Excel spreadsheets teach marketing students and managers the analytical techniques of:
- Situation Analysis
- Customer Lifetime Value Analysis
- Market Size and Market Share Analysis
- Pricing and Profitability Analysis
- Breakeven Analysis

We introduce the concept of a brand biography to describe an emerging trend in branding in which firms author a dynamic, historical account of the events that have shaped the brand over time. Using a particular type of brand biography, “the underdog”, we empirically show how managers can strategically use brand biographies in brand positioning, in this case to mitigate the curse of success. As brands grow and become successful, they are often marked by the negative stigma associated with size… Show more

We introduce the concept of a brand biography to describe an emerging trend in branding in which firms author a dynamic, historical account of the events that have shaped the brand over time. Using a particular type of brand biography, “the underdog”, we empirically show how managers can strategically use brand biographies in brand positioning, in this case to mitigate the curse of success. As brands grow and become successful, they are often marked by the negative stigma associated with size and power, which elicits anti-corporate sentiment from consumers. An underdog brand biography can be strategically wielded to prevent or offset anti-corporate backlash stemming from consumers’ negative perceptions of firms’ size and/or market power. Show less

This case introduces the concept of inbound marketing, pulling customer prospects toward a business through the use of Web 2.0 tools and applications like blogging, search engine optimization, and social media. Students follow the growth of HubSpot, an entrepreneurial venture which sells inbound marketing software as a service to business-to-business customers. HubSpot has built its own fledgling business entirely through inbound marketing strategies and tactics. However, the business is… Show more

This case introduces the concept of inbound marketing, pulling customer prospects toward a business through the use of Web 2.0 tools and applications like blogging, search engine optimization, and social media. Students follow the growth of HubSpot, an entrepreneurial venture which sells inbound marketing software as a service to business-to-business customers. HubSpot has built its own fledgling business entirely through inbound marketing strategies and tactics. However, the business is currently at a crossroads with management looking for rapid acceleration of sales and profits. HubSpot, in its quest for growth, faces significant challenges which are associated with the inbound marketing model. These include: 1.) developing market segmentation and targeting strategies after customers have initiated contact with the company to decide which customers to serve and which to turn away, 2.) configuring pricing strategies to align with the value delivery stream customers experience, and determining the scope and role of freeware in the product strategy, and 3.) determining whether inbound marketing communications programs can generate enough scale or whether traditional outbound marketing methods need to be employed to rapidly accelerate growth. The case introduces inbound marketing and juxtaposes it against traditional outbound models of marketing, encouraging students to explore the opportunities and challenges this new model presents for firms. The case allows students to grapple with the strategic and tactical decisions that accompany marketing strategy and to understand how marketing decisions pertaining to product, price, and promotion are interrelated and affect higher level strategic decisions on market segmentation, targeting, and positioning. Show less

This case introduces emerging Web 2.0 social media in virtual worlds, social networking sites, and video sharing sites, and encourages students to explore the opportunities and risks they present for brands. The case allows students to grapple with the strategic and tactical decisions that accompany marketing communications strategy and to combine information on consumer behavior with an understanding of brand objectives, in order to assess and evaluate new social media options. Brand manager… Show more

This case introduces emerging Web 2.0 social media in virtual worlds, social networking sites, and video sharing sites, and encourages students to explore the opportunities and risks they present for brands. The case allows students to grapple with the strategic and tactical decisions that accompany marketing communications strategy and to combine information on consumer behavior with an understanding of brand objectives, in order to assess and evaluate new social media options. Brand manager Margaret Foley is facing an increasingly complex media environment in which her traditional media plan, focused on television, print, and radio advertising, has become less effective due to declining audiences, increased advertising clutter, and consumers tuning out. She is exploring emerging Web 2.0 social media options to determine if they can better achieve her branding and advertising objectives. Her challenge is to cut through all of the hype surrounding Web 2.0 and to analyze the social media's potential for her brand by delving into the consumer needs and behaviors underpinning Web 2.0 technologies. Show less

For many firms, the brands associated with their products and/or services are their most valuable assets, and, hence, much management attention is given to designing, communicating, nurturing, and protecting them. This note is designed to provide an understanding of brand management strategies firms use to build, sustain, and leverage their brands.