Fortune heart healthy oil: when a strong brand strategy hits a cardiac roadblock!

Learning outcomes The case will familiarize students to TEARS model and No TEARS approach for brand endorser selection. It will enable the students to understand the extent of influencer impact on the brand. It will make students to realistically assess the pros and cons of ambassador marketing using celebrities. It will also enable the student to devise brand strategies to mitigate the risk associated with ambassador-based marketing. Case overview/synopsis The case explains the strategic challenge the brand faces in ambassador marketing due to the uncontrollable personal crisis of the celebrity. Brand ambassador is an integral element of the brand persona and is appointed to boost the brand’s unique proposition and sales. The selection of the brand ambassador is a strategic decision with direct implication on the brand equity. A strong celebrity–brand congruence is ideal to establish credibility, but it can backfire if anything negative occurs on either side. This case evaluates the crisis faced by Fortune oil which has been positioned as “the heart healthy oil” when its celebrity ambassador suffers heart attack. In the backdrop of the case, the students can analyse brand strategies with respect to ambassador marketing, TEARS model with No TEARS approach for endorser selection and endorser-related credibility risk management. Complexity academic level MBA BBA PG/Graduation in Marketing/Advertising. Supplementary materials Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Subject code CSS 8: Marketing.

The interaction relationships among agricultural certification labels or brands: evidence from Chinese consumer preference for fresh produce

China uses a multilevel agricultural certification system; however, its implications are not well understood. In this study, we used tomatoes as an example in a series of Becker-DeGroot-Marschak auction experiments to determine consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) toward three safety certification labels and two kinds of brands. Then, based on the auction experiment results, we designed a menu-based choice experiment to assess the interaction relationships between the safety certification labels and brands. The results showed that consumers were generally willing to pay a premium for tomatoes with safety-certified labels (especially for organic labels) and brands (especially for the enterprise brand). Providing consumers with additional information regarding the certification remarkably improved their WTP for tomatoes with organic and green labels. The menu-based choice experiment suggested that the organic and green labels were found to be substitutes. In addition, organic and green labels could not substitute the enterprise brand, whereas the converse of this relationship was true. Finally, a mutual substitution relationship was observed between hazard-free label and enterprise brand. Our research enables producers to consider the interaction between certification strategies and brand strategies. Therefore, marketers and policymakers should take steps to promote and expand consumers’ knowledge on certification, as it could benefit the development of certified food.

Market Entry, Fighting Brands, and Tacit Collusion: Evidence from the French Mobile Telecommunications Market

We study a major new entry in the French mobile telecommunications market, followed by the introduction of fighting brands by the three incumbents. Using an empirical oligopoly model, we find that the incumbents’ fighting brand strategies are difficult to rationalize as unilateral best responses. Instead, their strategies are consistent with a breakdown of tacit semi-collusion: before entry, the incumbents could successfully coordinate on restricting product variety to avoid cannibalization; after entry, this outcome became harder to sustain because of increased business stealing incentives. Consumers gained considerably from the added variety and, to a lesser extent, from the incumbents’ price responses. (JEL L13, L21, L96, M31)

Mermaids and Corporate Branding: Histories, meanings and impacts

Companies invest considerable resources into establishing meaningful and impactful brand identities, through which they build essential relationships with consumers. Several well-known consumer brands use mermaids as part of their brand identity. Perhaps no use of mermaids in branding is more ubiquitous than siren emblazoned on every Starbucks coffee cup. But Starbucks is not alone; other consumer brands, such as Chicken of the Sea, Virgin Voyages Cruise Line, and BonV!v Spiked Seltzer, incorporate mermaids as part of their brand architecture. Using the case method, this study will examine, brand by brand, the history, meaning, and impact of mermaids on particular brand identities and, thus, on the consumer relationships. This study considers the brand strategies of using mermaids and reflects on if and why these strategies have worked for the brands included in this study.

Steak and bleach as science communication heroes? The rise of post-corona, posthuman irony

Since early 2020, communicating risks associated with COVID-19 and providing safety advice have been top priorities for health agencies and governments. With an increase in employees working remotely following the global spread of coronavirus coupled with increasingly sophisticated marketing strategies, global brands unsurprisingly engaged consumers and publics by acknowledging the crisis that engulfed the world. An increase in online marketing was observed in an already existing trend online where hybrids of consumer, brand and product-as-object interacted as equals, using contemporary informal codes of social media discourse and often using irony and humour. However, this paper critically assesses how such important communication responsibilities about coronavirus were taken up by private companies. Online and social media outputs were analysed through a lens of anthropomorphising and posthuman brands. A typology of brand strategies was developed based on engagement and how COVID-19 science, care and prevention were communicated. The paper concludes with a reflection on where this may lead health and environmental communication and what it means for science communicators.

Internet banking brand strategies amongst German commercial banks since the 1990s

Purpose In the mid-1990s, market demands for around-the-clock (24/7) banking and financial transacting began to converge with advances in internet-based technologies. This confluence of forces gave rise to the birth of internet banking. Building upon the relevant literature, this paper aims to develop a set of propositions to address the following questions: what brand strategy or strategies were used at the birth of internet banking roughly 25 years ago? In the years since then, have merger and acquisition transactions involving internet or “direct” banking businesses only come to fruition where the direct bank was previously under a specific brand strategy? And finally, where there have been changes in internet banking brand strategy, have these invariably been in the ultimate direction of one particular brand strategy? Design/methodology/approach Because of the exploratory nature of the research question, this paper uses a case study examination as the research approach. In addition to gaining deeper insight into issues involving internet bank branding as these actually existed, this paper aims to propose preliminary and tentative conclusions that can later be tested empirically with larger sample size. The case studies specifically examine German commercial banks with direct bank businesses. Findings In the examination of the German commercial banks, this paper finds that their internet banking activities some 25 years ago were, in fact, never launched using an umbrella brand strategy but rather with a combined brand strategy or multi-brand strategy. Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) transactions involving internet-based direct banks were only consummated where the direct bank had previously been operated by the parent bank using a multi-brand strategy. Where the brand strategies of internet-based direct banks have been changed by their parent banks, this has invariably been in the direction of an umbrella brand strategy. Originality/value Within the marketing and banking literature, there are no in-depth examinations of internet banking brand strategies to be found. This paper, in addressing this research topic, marks the first full survey of German commercial banks with internet-based direct banking businesses. This survey, moreover, examines branding not only at the time that internet-based direct banks were first established starting in 1994 but also the subsequent development of internet banking brand strategies to the present day.

Brand strategies development through sales promotion and endorsement of Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) in West Java Indonesia

Not all business in the market get customer attentions as they deserve, especially for Small Medium Enterprise (SME). It sparks fierce competition between SME to stand out from rivals in the market. Sales promotion is known as one of the most effective method which influence sales volume, especially for SME’s market. The second strategy is having endorsement from a third-party. Previous studies have identified impact of monetary promotion through online and in-store strategy to build strong brand identity without, and so as endorsement. However, there is still inadequate understanding of branding development particularly what specific promotions and endorsement works better for SME, as previous research are mostly based on multinational or big firms which have different characteristics with SME. Therefore, this paper examine the impact of two types of promotions, which are: monetary (vs non-monetary) promotion and celebrity (vs.non-celebrity) endoresement into better customer perceptions about SMEs’ product and brand.

Beef Consumption Pattern in Brazil

Brazil is one of the world’s leading beef producers. The goal of this chapter is to give an overview of how Brazilian beef production is important to Brazil and worldwide. We also give an overview of some aspects of red meat consumption in this country and the main tendencies regarding sustainability production. The economic importance of beef production is Brazil is based on secondary data and the main content about beef consumption is based on researchs conducted by the authors that interviews Brazilian consumers. The chapter focus in some concepts, concerns and factors that affects consumption as symbolic aspects, ethical, health and environmental concerns, brand, herd tracking, guarantees of origin, legal employment, safety and hygiene, animal wellbeing, sustainability and the Carbon Neutral Beef initiative (CNB). Marketing, certification, treaceability and brand strategies conducted by some industries, the red meat premium boutiques in the retailing sector, and the role of brazilian government in meat safety, monitoring and regulation are also covered.

Product differentiation and brand building: a hedonic analysis of yogurt price in China

The Chinese yogurt market has seen strong growth in recent years. To meet consumers’ diverse demand, yogurt manufacturers have invested substantially in product and brand strategies – they not only introduce new attributes to yogurt, but also create sub-brands with distinct product positioning. However, little is known regarding the effectiveness of these strategies. We fill this research gap by estimating the price premiums associated with main yogurt attributes and brands using a hedonic analysis framework. Our main findings are that plain flavored yogurt and yogurt with sugar are associated with negative price premiums while having fat, having probiotics, ambient and being designed for kids are associated with positive price premiums. Moreover, sub-brand effect plays an important role in consumer’s valuation of yogurt due to their distinct product positioning, and sub-brands that position themselves as natural, ambient, European-style, traditional style, fruits and grains, and for children have high price premium.