Case Teaching Notes

General Introduction to the Cases in

Best Practice Cases in Branding

There are fifteen in-depth case studies in the Best Practice Cases in Branding
supplementary text, each of which can support one — or even parts of two — class
sessions. Moreover, many of these fifteen written cases are supplemented by a 10-20
minute video that contains additional information and interviews with key company
sources for the case. In general, the written cases are fairly easy to teach and can provoke
much student involvement. They can be a valuable addition to your course. The written
cases are somewhat different, however, from the typical HBS cases and therefore work
best with a slightly different teaching approach. This introductory note describes the
recommended general approach to teaching these cases. Detailed specific case notes are
provided for each of the fifteen cases. Additional information on the video cases can be
found on the Prentice-Hall web site. Some PowerPoint slides with graphics that may be
useful in teaching the case can also be found on the web site.

The main difference between these cases and traditional HBS cases is
that HBS cases often have a strong decision focus – a certain set of
actions that must be evaluated and enacted. The text cases here have
a different approach. They concentrate on major brands with which
students are generally familiar, review much historical background,
and provide detailed information on one particular branding issue,
event, or strategy. By and large, the marketers of these brands have
done much “right” and, as such, the cases have much more of a “best
practice” flavor than may be found in other types of cases. For that
reason, student learning from reading the cases alone can often be
quite rich and beneficial, and students appreciate the opportunity to
learn about high profile brands and companies. Nevertheless, the in-
class experience can add extra dimensions as specific topics can be
expanded on and additional learning can occur. Thus, discussion with
these cases does not aim towards resolution of a marketing problem
or opportunity as much as with the HBS cases but instead covers a lot
of ground to make a series of important points about branding in
general and one particular brand in the process. The video cases can
also help in this regard. The basic breakdown of the cases is 1/3
review of case material, 1/3 lessons about branding in general; and
1/3 about next steps and new development for the brand. The videos
can be shown in their entirety at the beginning or end of class or
shown in segments at different times during the case discussion.

These written cases can, of course, be supplemented by HBS cases,

which deal with more specific branding topics (some of which will be
highlighted below). The purpose of these teaching notes is to provide
you with useful background to organize your teaching of the cases.

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Given the high profile nature of the brands that are the focus of these
cases, it will make sense to update the case with current events and
developments that students will find of interest.

These cases represent best practices from a variety of industries, from

fast-moving consumer goods to high-tech and online brands to service
brands. The cases often include information about global branding
issues faced by the companies, with two cases (Nivea and Red Bull)
focusing primarily on Europe. The brand management topics covered
in the cases will help the reader understand how to:

1) Brand a new product (even if it is a commodity or

ingredient)
2) Employ new marketing approaches to build brand equity
and brand loyalty
3) Expand a brand into new geographical markets and
channels
4) Establish a brand hierarchy and introduce brand
extensions
5) Manage a corporate brand
6) Keep a brand strong over time
7) Revitalize a brand that gets into trouble
8) Change a brand name or reposition a brand

Collectively, these cases provide a comprehensive overview of the

strategic brand management process and corresponding best practice
guidelines. Each of the fifteen cases also yields valuable specific
lessons on how to build and manage brand equity.

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Intel: Building a Technology Brand
Teaching Notes

Summary

This case concerns the marketing efforts by Intel to build brand equity
in the face of a lawsuit preventing trademark protection for their X86
microprocessor series. Intel had to determine how to name its new
generation of microprocessors, as well as how to establish competitive
advantages and consumer preference for its microprocessor lines. A
number of issues are raised concerning the development of an
effective branding strategy.

The case also addresses Intel’s expansion of its business beyond PC

microprocessors and the various branding strategies the company
employed. After being criticized for a “lack of focus”, Intel decided
clean-up its product line and limit its focus on microprocessors,
servers, mobile devices, and networking equipment. As a result, the
company deployed a “platform strategy” and introduced a bundle of
products, including its new “Centrino” processor along with other
chips designed for wireless communication.

Despite its success in the microprocessor business, Intel recognized

that the PC market growth is slow and competition from AMD is
becoming fiercer. As a result, Intel’s stock price declined significantly
and required immediate action. The new management decided to
launch a new brand strategy that attempts to reposition Intel as a
“warm and fizzy consumer company.” The new campaign is based on a
new logo, and new slogan (Leap Ahead), and new platform (Intel Viiv)
and four specific target markets. Will this campaign help the brand
achieve renewed success?

Class discussion can revolve around the following questions that

students should consider before class:

1. What were the strengths and weaknesses of the Intel Inside

campaign?
2. Evaluate Intel’s continued use of the Pentium family of
processors. Did Intel make the right decision by extending the
name through the Pentium 4 processor?
3. Suppose you were the Chief Marketing Officer for AMD. How
would you propose the company position itself to better
compete with Intel? Would you propose that AMD institute an
Inside-like ad campaign?
4. Evaluate Intel’s segmentation strategy. Is having a
good/better/best product line (Celeron, Pentium, Xeon) the best

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 positioning for Intel? Should it discontinue a line(s) and focus on
the other(s)?
5. In light of Intel’s move into the “digital home,” did the
company’s executives make the right decision in launching an
entirely new brand identity? Did it make the right decision in
changing a 37-year-old Intel logo and dropping the Intel Inside
campaign for Leap Ahead? What other marketing strategies
might the company employ?
6. Intel moved into consumer-electronics products, such as digital
cameras in 2000, only to withdraw after receiving complaints
from OEMs such as Dell. Does Intel face a similar issue with its
move into the “digital home?” Does this move too far outside
Intel’s core competency of producing microprocessors?

Teaching Strategy

This case can generate and support discussion on a number of topics,

e.g., high-tech marketing, ingredient branding, corporate branding
strategies, brand name choice criteria, brand hierarchy, brand
migration, etc. The case also can be supplemented in a number of
ways to incorporate current developments. Specifically, this is an
excellent case for demonstrating, among other things, the following:

1) Added-value that a brand can provide over and above that

offered by a generic product — less than five years after the
ingredient branding program began, Intel was ranked the
third most valuable brand in the world
2) Challenges of marketing “generations” of products and
brands
3) Critical importance of implementation
4) Complementarity of push and pull marketing
5) Challenges of combining an ingredient brand strategy with a
corporate umbrella brand strategy and a sub-brand strategy
6) Role of branding in a highly competitive, constantly changing
environment

It is useful to begin the case discussion with a quick review of Intel’s

history to provide some perspective and a few quick lessons. Intel’s
shift from memory to microprocessors was a fortuitous one as their
microprocessors became the industry standard. It is worthwhile for
students to understand Intel’s broader business model and how they
invested in research and development to create a competitive
advantage for their products during this time. Their marketing
strategies, however, were not as strong and they faced a number of
challenges. In terms of naming, internally, a proliferation of numbers
and letters created an “alphabet soup” of brand; externally,

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competitors could copy “more or less” but still use the same name.
Moreover, greater competition was emerging period. As a result,
there was much consumer confusion as to who made a particular
generation microprocessor and also what level of performance to
expect from a particular product. Losing the court case in March
1991 and Cyrix’s introduction of the 486 SLC chip in March 1992
brought Intel’s branding issues to the forefront.

It is also important for students to understand how Intel’s target

market strategy moved from a “push” to a “pull” strategy, with the
mass market, non-technical business and home PC users in mind (e.g.,
the Circuit City or Best Buy shopper). At this point, the Intel Inside
campaign can be analyzed. To provide some focus, it is useful to put
the Intel brand hierarchy on the board. Intel Inside was an attempt to
brand microprocessors as a whole. The word “Intel” established an
umbrella brand for the company, while “Inside” established the
company as an ingredient brand. The logic of such a strategy can be
explored in terms of pros (e.g., efficiency of marketing expenses,
simplicity of message, ability to transfer equity to new product
categories) and cons (e.g., lack of product specificity). The
implementation of the strategy also can be reviewed, combining pull
marketing programs directed to consumers (in the form of media
advertising) with push marketing programs directed to OEMs (in the
form of co-op advertising). It is worth noting how consumer
nd rd
advertising and cooperation from 2 and 3 tier OEMs put pressure
st
on 1 tier OEMs to get with the program.

The logic of the whole campaign must be spelled out: to create brand
(and category) awareness for Intel as a microprocessor and a key
ingredient to the computer, as well as linking two key brand
associations (safety or upgradability and power or performance). This
marketing program – designing state-of-the art chips and
communicating to consumers through a highly integrated push and
pull program – was remarkably effective in achieving those goals.
Intel gained credibility in the process as a standard-bearer worthy of
consumer trust, and, due to the high-tech fantasy look of their ads,
gained some brand personality. It is instructive to ask students
whether any other companies have adopted similar marketing
strategies. In some ways, Gillette, Nike, and others play a similar
game by pouring money into R&D to achieve technological
advantages, adopting sub-branding strategies where the corporate
brand is combined as a family brand with an individual brand that
designates a particular type of technology. Minor improvements, on
the other hand, are designated with a modifier as yet another brand
element (e.g., Gillette Sensor Excel, Pentium II).

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It is also instructive at this point to broaden the discussion to have
students identify success factors for ingredient branding in general.
The text reviews the concept of ingredient branding in Chapter 7 and
offers several guidelines that can serve as a backdrop for this
discussion (e.g., ingredients must matter and be instrumental to
product performance in some way; ingredients must add value and be
differentiated; ingredients must be noticeable or visible or there must
be some means to identify and signal its presence; and there must be
OEM or producer cooperation). The pros and cons for the host brand
and the ingredient brand should also be considered. For example, in
terms of the ingredient brand maker, there are many potential
downsides: the promotional cost of the pull and push programs; the
potential loss of control; the challenge to secure OEM acceptance and
the possible power struggle and conflict that may ensue; the difficulty
of managing the brand meaning; and so on.

If desired and if time permits, the evolution of Intel’s ad campaign

over the years and some of the lessons that they learned along the
way can be reviewed. For example, the company learned how
advertising can create personality and build a brand even with a
technology product (e.g., with the “graffiti” ad campaign). It learned
how focus on the brand in an ad could enhance brand awareness (e.g.,
with the “measles” ad campaign). Intel’s initial “Intel Inside” ads had
very high consumer attribution scores, which meant if consumers
remembered the ad, they also remembered the brand associated with
the ad. It learned how television can be more effective at the brand
level and how print can be more effective at the product level (e.g.,
with the “Room for the Future” ad campaign). In terms of this latter
point, it is worth noting how tightly integrated this campaign was –
the visual of the print ad literally contains a key scene from the TV ad.
Such coordination made sense given their dual brand and product
communication needs (Chapter 6 of the text addresses issues with
coordinated media).

The discussion could also touch on the launch of the Pentium II chip
and the “bunny people” spots to support their MMX sub-brand. MMX
seemed like a logical way to communicate the new multi-media
capabilities of their chip. The bunny people spots were consistent
with the technological focus of Intel advertising, but they got the
brand out of the inside of the computer and added desired personality.
Once the characters got “a life of their own,” and began taking road
trips in advertising, they distracted consumers from the desired
message. Intel’s subsequent ads for the Pentium III, involving the
performance-art collective Blue Man Group, can be critiqued, as can
the Pentium IV ads with the group and later ads with alien spacecraft.

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The Blue Man Group ads were artistic and abstract and may have
been able to create brand awareness, but were not technological or
concrete. The alien ads focused solely on technology, but also
contained personality. Students can debate the merits of these
approaches.

After thoroughly reviewing the rationale for ingredient branding in

general and Intel’s program in particular, the discussion can turn to
Intel’s branding strategy. Intel’s criteria for choosing a name can be
enumerated and critiqued. The pros and cons of the three candidate
names can also be considered. At this point in time, given the length
of time since the introduction, most students will feel quite
comfortable with the Pentium name so it is important to bring them
back into the case and the fairly negative reaction that the name
initially received. It is important to remind students how almost any
new name sounds bad at first. The thoroughness of the marketing
plan to transition to the new name should be spelled out. The name
certainly had merit and made sense as a lateral – but not unrelated –
move in the numbering sequence that Intel had established.

Some fruitful discussion can focus on Intel’s long-term branding

strategy. What should the branding guidelines for successive
generations of products be? Intel’s subsequent introductions of the
Pentium Pro, MMX technology, Pentium II, III, and IV, Xeon, Celeron,
and Itanium microprocessors can be discussed. Intel’s investment in
Pentium as a brand has undoubtedly made them want to hang on to
the name as long as possible to maximize their return on its equity.
Where should they draw the line? The potential risks of using the
Pentium name too long include losing the interest of consumers in
subsequent Pentium line extensions, lack of technological
differentiation from competitors, and building too much equity in the
Pentium name instead of in the Intel umbrella brand.

It would be interesting to discuss and evaluate the new brand strategy

deployed in 2006, which received mixed reviews. Do they really need
to go that far and abandon the existing branding? Is the company
offering the optimal product portfolio? Will the new strategy
turnaround the business?

Depending on the technical sophistication of the students in the class,

there can also be interesting discussion of where Intel can go as a
corporate brand. Just what boundaries exist for the Intel brand? The
mental map of Intel has a lot of abstract associations, which should
enable brand movement beyond microprocessors. Yet Intel
encountered difficulty expanding its brand, as detailed in the case.
Students can discuss reasons for this difficulty and offer potential

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solutions. Finally, the case can serve as a backdrop for a discussion of
high-tech marketing and branding. Some specific guidelines for high-
tech products are included in Chapter 15 and may provide a useful
starting point.

Key Lessons

 Success factors for ingredient branding strategy

o Must convince consumers that ingredient matters
o Must convince consumers that branded ingredient is
better
o Must create brand logo and means of identification
o Must support strong pull program
o Must enlist trade and retail cooperation
 Value of brand hierarchy as planning tool
 Rationale for umbrella branding in high-tech brand setting
 Rationale, challenge, and synergy of push and pull strategies
 Role of different advertising media to build brand equity
o TV
o Brand
o Print
o Product
 Importance of creating strong brand links in advertising
 Advantages of employing multiple brand elements

Discussion Questions

1. Was the Intel Inside campaign worth it? What were the factors
that led to its success?

 Superior products
 Commitment to innovation
 Technological leader: “eat your own children” theory
 Little initial competition
 IBM’s choice of Intel’s microprocessor architecture
 Clear, simple benefit positioning strategy
 Engagement of OEM support
 Play-to-win attitude
 Recognition of importance of end consumer: emphasis on push
and pull
 Heavy marketing spending

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2. Evaluate the Pentium family of processors. Did Intel make the
right decision by extending the name through the Pentium 4
processor? Should the company consider changing the name of the
next processor in the Pentium line?

 Pentium family has clearly ordered hierarchy

o Initially, provided consumers with an incentive to upgrade
o Consumers now see less difference between Pentium III and Pentium IV
 Lots of equity in Pentium name
o Reason to keep it for five generations
o But, potential hazard if name is changed
 New name would signal biggest leap in technology
o Once again provide incentives for customers to upgrade

o But, new name would not leverage Pentium equity

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3. Suppose you were the Chief Marketing Officer for AMD. How would
you propose the company position itself to better compete with Intel?
Would you propose that AMD institute an Inside-like ad campaign?

 AMD management does not believe in “Inside” campaigns.

Besides, it is not recommended to imitate Intel to avoid a
“follower” image.
 AMD should focus on its core competencies, excel in the
commodity-like memory business, and try to be ahead in
cutting-edge technology and support its brands Athlon 64 and
Opteron.
 As the director of worldwide consumer marketing said: “you will
probably never see us do a mass-marketing carpet-bombing
approach.”

4. Evaluate Intel’s segmentation strategy. Is having a good/better/best

product line (Celeron, Pentium, Xeon) the best positioning for Intel?
Should it discontinue a line(s) and focus on the other(s)?

 The best product line (Xeon) is designed for servers and

powerful networks, which is a separate market with specific
needs.
 The nature of the market, especially the American market,
forces Intel to consider the low-end market.
 The fear of losing the high-end market drove Intel to focus on
the low-end market as well. There is no room to allow for
competition to gain ground.

5. In light of Intel’s move into the “digital home,” did the company’s
executives make the right decision in launching an entirely new brand
identity? Did it make the right decision in changing a 37-year-old Intel
logo and dropping the Intel Inside campaign for Leap Ahead? What
other marketing strategies might the company employ?

 This is an excellent discussion point with students, especially

that the new brand strategy received mixed reviews.
 Other marketing strategies include keeping the same brand
name and logo and focus on a new positioning strategy without
abandoning the existing branding.

6. Intel moved into consumer-electronics products, such as digital

cameras in 2000, only to withdraw after receiving complaints from
OEMs such as Dell. Does Intel face a similar issue with its move into
the “digital home?” Does this move too far outside Intel’s core
competency of producing microprocessors?

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 This is a good point for discussion and answers will vary.
 One point to consider is that Intel needs to diversify to grow the
business and drive the stock price, and this won’t happen
without diversifying its business.

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Got Milk?: Branding a Commodity
Teaching Notes

Summary

This case concerns the marketing efforts of the California Fluid Milk
Processor Board (CMPB) to stop a prolonged drop in milk
consumption. The case describes the various groups involved in dairy
promotion in California and the history and charter of the CMPB. The
case also profiles the beverage market and consumer perceptions of
milk, providing much background research in the process. A number
of issues are raised concerning the development of an effective
branding strategy for a commodity. Class discussion can revolve
around the following sets of questions that students should consider
before class:
1. What associations do consumers have for milk? What are
the implications of these associations in terms of building
brand equity for and increasing the consumption of milk?
2. Evaluate the CMPB marketing program. What do you see
as its strengths and weaknesses? What changes would
you make?
3. Evaluate their Hispanic marketing initiatives. Does the
CMPB risk alienating its current consumer base?
4. There are several areas of growth that lay ahead of the
CMPB—health, cheese, Hispanic, and new channels of
distribution. Given the trends, what should they do and
how should they do it?
5. How long can the CMPB keep running the “got milk?”
campaign? What can they do to keep the message and
strategy fresh in the consumer’s minds? Are there other
examples of other successful campaigns that ran this
long?

Teaching Objectives

 To examine the issues in branding …

o a commodity
o a mature brand
o a small share brand
 To examine issues in revitalizing product sales
 To consider the difficulty in changing consumer behavior
 To illustrate principles of effective brand-building advertising
 To demonstrate the design and implementation of an integrated
marketing communication program

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Teaching Strategy

The CMPB case is one that students will find highly relevant and
challenging. The marketing problem is clear – Class 1 fluid milk
consumption in gallons has declined 18% in California during the time
period from 1980 to 1993. A good way to start the case is to ask
students what associations they have to milk. Students will have little
difficulty generating a whole list of associations — some bad and some
good. Students then can be probed as to what the implications of
these associations have for marketing strategy. Many of the possible
strategies that CMPB is considering follow naturally from these
associations. At this point, it is also useful to review a little as to why
milk experienced such a dramatic decline. Students should appreciate
that a whole host of forces contributed to the decline, including
changes in consumer lifestyles, changes in consumer attitudes toward
milk, competition, and lack of marketing.

The interesting question, of course, is: what could the CMPB do?
Students can discuss what the CMPB target was and what its
objectives were. The topic of market segmentation can be brought up
relating to the CMPB’s decision to concentrate on existing heavy
users of milk, instead of new users or light drinkers. The arguments
for and against the various segment options should be considered.
Basically, the argument for concentrating on the current users was
the immediate need to halt the sales slide and the latent potential that
existed with that group. The objectives for that target market – to
increase their behavior –should be contrasted to the traditional health
messages that have been used for years. Consumers knew the health
benefits – a new tack was necessary. That is, a new and compelling
point-of-difference was needed.

Next, the logic of the “relative deprivation” strategy with “got milk”
should be examined. The key point that students must realize is the
power and meaningfulness of turning around “milk with food” to “food
without milk.” The cleverness of this positioning strategy is matched
by the brilliance of the creative strategy of the ad executions. The
concept is brought to life by placing ordinary people in amusing
situations where the consequences and pain of not having milk at the
right time is made abundantly clear. In other words, the campaign
demonstrates the hallmark of a great ad campaign – a great message
strategy (i.e., “what you say”) combined with a great creative strategy
(“i.e., “how you say it”).

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Moreover, the tag line and slogan, “got milk,” is a powerful two-word
expression of what the campaign is all about. It’s simple and includes
a call for action. As such, it represents a wonderful “hook” to the ad
campaign and helps to lay the foundation for an integrated marketing
communication program. Thus, one final take-away point about the
campaign is that it represents a highly integrated marketing
communication program. The ad message is cleverly reinforced at the
point of purchase not at the milk section so much as the cereal,
cookie, cake sections etc. where the “got milk” reminder can have the
greatest impact. The CMPB’s use of joint promotions with packaged-
foods companies, “shelf talker” advertising in supermarket aisles,
branded checkout dividers, and strategically placed billboard ads all
served as further reminders for purchase.

During this time, it is useful to bring up the challenges of being a

small share, limited resources brand competing with the “big boys” in
a competitive marketplace. Push the students as to what general
guidelines make sense (Chapter 15 of the text has some relevant
material on branding for small business). For example, marketers of
small share brands, such as with the CMPB must be 1) more creative
and 2) more focused than the major brands. Greater focus can occur
in terms of products, markets, and media. The point is that small
share brands cannot afford to apply the “broad brush” and make the
mistakes that major brands do – they just do not have the “marketing
muscle” to bail them out.

Another useful way to wrap up the discussion is to compare this

campaign to the “milk mustache” print ad campaign. While retaining
a health message, the milk mustache ad campaign has evolved
executionally over the years from models and the tag line “What a
Surprise” to a wide variety of celebrities from all walks of fame and
the tag line, “Where is Your Mustache?” The newer tag line clearly
was a stronger call for action but the campaign would not seem to
have the strong behavioral focus of “got milk.” On the plus side,
however, it would seem to be a means to update the image of milk and
make it more relevant and contemporary. Comparisons to the
California raisins campaign can be made along those lines.

Furthermore, a discussion on the different ethnic groups in the United

States would lead to the Hispanic buying habits and milk
consumption. Students are encouraged to propose ideas to expand the
campaign idea to other products (example: Got Cheese?). Finally,
students can explore new ways to expand the distribution of milk,
leading to a discussion on vending machines, McDonald’s, etc…

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At this point, discussion can address next steps for the “got milk”
campaign as it went national. The “got milk” tagline was licensed for
use in the milk mustache ads, which added another layer to the
integrated marketing strategy. “Got milk” became a bona-fide cult
phenomenon, and the dangers of overexposure could be discussed
here. Students can discuss the difficulty of evolving a highly creative
campaign over time without straying too far from the core qualities
that made the campaign successful or using too much repetition. The
CMPB attempted to update the milk deprivation formula by creating
Drysville, a town without milk. Reasons for the failure of this
campaign should be discussed, and students can make suggestions of
how to move the “got milk” campaign forward.

Discussion Questions

1. What associations do consumers have for milk? What are the

implications of
these associations in terms of building brand equity for and increasing
the consumption of milk?

 Consumer Associations
o Healthy
o Consumed at home
o Goes well with certain other foods
o Commodity product
o Virtually no image component
 Implications for increasing consumption
o Target consumers in the home
o Tie consumption occasions with other food
o Awareness already high, and image not likely to
improve
o Needed to develop a unique and unexpected
marketing campaign

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2. Evaluate the CMPB marketing program. What do you see as its
strengths and weaknesses? What changes would you make?

 Strengths
o Clever
o Effective (stopped decline)
o Strong tagline can be leveraged across multiple
communication platforms
 Weaknesses
o Ad execution eventually repetitive
o Stopped decline, but did not lead to increased sales

3. Evaluate their Hispanic marketing initiatives. Does the CMPB risk

alienating its current consumer base?

 Large Hispanic population

 Heavy milk drinkers
 Deprivation concept was not funny for them
 Sacred ingredient: family, love & milk
 Campaign was very successful
 Risk of alienating current consumer base is low (2 different
cultures; 2 different languages)

4. There are several areas of growth that lay ahead of the CMPB—
health, cheese, Hispanic, and new channels of distribution. Given the
trends, what should they do and how should they do it?

 Health: trend that should be pursued

 Cheese: an opportunity among Hispanics
 New channels: sources of growth

5. How long can the CMPB keep running the “got milk?” campaign?
What can they do to keep the message and strategy fresh in the
consumer’s minds? Are there other examples of other successful
campaigns that ran this long?

 Problems relate to the weaknesses described above

 Difficult to increase consumption for reasons described
above
 Possible Remedies:
o Expand flavors (Greater variety; Milk becomes less a
commodity, more a beverage)
o Expand usage occasions (Portability leads to greater
usage)

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o Push strategy (Milk is highly profitable in retail)
o Expand through other channels (Half of meal
occasions outside home)

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General Electric: Branding in Business to Business
Teaching Notes

Summary

This case focuses on the marketing and advertising efforts that have
been done by General Electric throughout the years to build a
corporate brand and establish a personal brand identity. Immelt-
General Electric ninth CEO- has to decide on the direction of General
Electric within the coming years. Immelt who has officially held the
position of General Electric’s CEO few days before September 11,
2001 has been faced with a lot of challenges since day one. These
challenges are mainly a struggling economy, rising fuel costs and
global warming. The main issue at the current time is what other
extensions or modifications to General Electric’s brand strategy could
be done in order to maintain its position within the global market.
Class discussion can revolve around the following questions that
students should consider before class:

1. Discuss the importance of B2B marketing and a strong B2B

brand. How does it differ from consumer marketing?
2. Did Jeff Immelt and Beth Comstock do the right thing by
dropping “We Bring Good Things to Life” for “Imagination at
Work”? Why or why not?
3. Has “Imagination at Work”, “Ecomagination”, and “Healthcare
Re-Imagined” changed GE’s brand? If so, how? Is it a good
change or not?
4. Can Immelt transform GE’s approach of innovation (risky,
unknown areas like fuel cells, solar energy, hydrogen storage,
and nanotechnology) versus past strategies of improvements of
current technologies?
5. What should Henson do next for GE’s brand strategy?

Teaching Strategy

This case can generate and support discussion on a number of topics,

e.g., B2B marketing, Building a corporate brand, establishing a brand
identity, role of marketing campaigns in reflecting the company’s
vision, etc. Specifically this is an excellent case for demonstrating,
among other things:
1) The importance of having a recognizable brand
2) The benefits of having a diverse portfolio of products unified
under one corporate brand
3) The importance of having a personal brand identity

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 4) The necessity of adapting to the changing environment by
continuous marketing and advertising campaigns that reflect
the direction of the company at a certain stage

It is useful to begin the case discussion with a quick summary of the

performance of General Electric from its early start up till the current
time. It would also be useful to discuss General Electric’s different
divisions in order to make sure that the students have a correct
picture of the size and level of General Electric and its position within
the global market.

The importance of marketing and advertising efforts should be

focused upon. General Electric had given attention to marketing
efforts since its early start up. The focus at the early stages was on
the consumers and providing them with good products. General
Electric kept focusing on consumer advertising for a long while till its
slogan became a household slogan for a number of years.

It is useful to discuss the slogans of the campaigns that were

developed in order to build a consumer brand in order to give an
insight of the goals that were intended to be delivered and what kind
of brand General Electric wanted to build through these campaigns. It
would be helpful if these campaigns were briefly discussed in order to
provide the students with the evolution in the branding strategy.
Furthermore, analysis of the slogan of each campaign would give an
insight that a certain extension was made to the overall corporate
brand in order to serve the circumstances of the time. The first of
these campaigns was the one that had the slogan of “The Initials of a
Friend… GE” while the last of these campaigns was the one with the
slogan “Progress for People”.

After discussing the different campaigns that were developed with the
focus of building a “consumer brand” then the shift towards B2B
marketing and building a strong B2B brand is to be discussed.
Additionally a discussion of how this shift marked a new era of growth
and expansion for General Electric would help in highlighting the
differences between consumer marketing and B2B marketing.

This shift was adopted by General Electric’s top management. This

could be used to reflect the benefits that a company could reap when
its top management realizes the importance of branding and how it
helps to set the tone for the overall organization. It is also instructive
at this point to direct the attention of the students to the positives of
building a campaign on the success of those that preceded. Meaning
that each campaign did not cancel what the previous campaign’s

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slogan was developed to convey. On the contrary, a new Tagline for a
new campaign was a kind of an extension to the brand.

After discussing the characteristics of B2B marketing it would be

useful if the discussion touched upon the specific case of developing
the campaign “Imagination at Work”. The importance of engaging the
employees before the launch of the campaign is a very important
point that has to be tackled. Adoption of a new campaign’s slogan has
to come internally first before it could be conveyed to the public.

It is fruitful to discuss the role of marketing research and getting

validated and verified statistics in order to judge the success or failure
of a campaign. No judgment is to be made only based on reviews and
assumptions instead, accurate data should be the basis for judgment.
As sometimes, the reviews tend to dislike a campaign and make it
seem a failure while actually consumer surveys reflect the opposite
and assure that the desired outcomes were achieved.

Key Lessons

 Importance of having a corporate brand

 Importance of B2B marketing
 Effect of marketing campaigns’ taglines on a brand
 Advantages of employing an extension strategy for a brand
 Value of building a new campaign over the success of those
preceding it
 Importance of internal branding

Discussion Questions

1. Discuss the importance of B2B marketing and a strong

B2B brand. How does it differ from consumer marketing?

 Fewer customers
 Impress home buyers not home builders

2. Did Jeff Immelt and Beth Comstock do the right thing by

dropping “We Bring Good Things to Life” for “Imagination at
Work”? Why or why not?

 Mixed reviews
 Resonated well with customers
 More contemporary

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  Risk of abandoning a successful campaign that required
heavy investment

3. Has “Imagination at Work”, “Ecomagination”, and

“Healthcare Re-Imagined” changed GE’s brand? If so, how? Is it a
good change or not?

 Yes, from a consumer-oriented to a stockholder-oriented

approach
 From an emotional to an innovative & responsible image
 Students are encouraged to discuss the effects of each of
these strategies.

4. Can Immelt transform GE’s approach of innovation (risky,

unknown areas like fuel cells, solar energy, hydrogen storage, and
nanotechnology) versus past strategies of improvements of
current technologies?

 It is possible if there is enough consistency in the

strategies deployed.
 However, it is quite challenging because the past
strategies have been utilized for a long period of time.

5. What should Henson do next for GE’s brand strategy?

 Apply the “innovation” approach and use extensive

marketing research to validate the success of the
campaign.
 Extend the brand to areas that reinforce the new
approach.
 Students are encouraged to discuss and argue with the
suggestions raised.

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Red Bull – Building Brand Equity in Non-Traditional Ways
Teaching Notes

Summary

The Red Bull case is unique because it deals with a single product that
found new ways to build a brand in a very competitive category. It is a
good case to supplement students’ learning about non-traditional
marketing methods. Red Bull’s founder, Dietrich Mateschitz, was an
experienced marketing professional and approached the creation of
Red Bull from a branding perspective. Red Bull essentially invented a
new category – energy drinks – in Western markets, and marketed its
product without much above-the-line advertising. The product was the
primary marketing tool, and as a private company Red Bull exercised
control over the distribution of its product. The company expanded
very selectively into new markets, yet still achieved exponential
growth. Red Bull became one of the major success stories in the
highly competitive beverage market in the 1990s. Students should
consider the following questions as a basis for discussion:

1) Describe Red Bull’s sources of brand equity. Do these

sources change
depending on the market or country?
2) Analyze Red Bull’s marketing program in terms of how it
contributes to the
brand’s equity. Discuss strengths and weaknesses.
3) How can Red Bull maintain its marketing momentum? Would
you recommend that Red Bull develops any brand
extensions? If so, what would they be? Would you use the
same marketing strategy?
4) Evaluate Red Bull’s move into herbal teas, fast-food chains,
and magazines. Does it make sense for the company to
expand into these areas? What are the potential benefits and
dangers?
5) Because product usage was not marketed as being limited to
one or even a few occasions, Red Bull users could continue to
use the product even as their priorities shifted. The case
states that, “a Red Bull consumer first attracted to the
product as a nightlife enhancer in his or her early twenties
might later use the drink as a morning pick-me-up or a
revitalizer during a long day of meetings.” How effective is
Red Bull at advertising to these varied groups?

Teaching Objectives

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1) To discuss how to build awareness and image using non-
traditional marketing methods
2) To analyze channel and distribution strategies
3) To analyze the implementation of a global marketing
program
4) To examine the task of dealing with competition

109
Teaching Strategy

The Red Bull case can be used in tandem with the Starbucks case,
since it reinforces many of the same points. Red Bull is a good case to
discuss selection of brand elements, implementation of a marketing
program, building a brand using non-traditional marketing means,
and outlasting competition. Since the product is the star for the
brand, the case goes into much detail about the history and design of
Red Bull. Students can be asked to describe the product, since many
will be familiar with the beverage, and analyze the brand elements.
They should come up with something along the following lines:

 Flavor
o Medicinal taste reinforces efficacy
o Carbonation gives refreshment, energy, and mixer
associations
 Packaging
o New size & unusual shape creates interest
o Single-serve cans, no multi-can packs, reinforced premium
positioning
o Visually appealing silver-and-blue
 Ingredients
o Caffeine, taurine, other energy ingredients allow Red Bull
to make claims about health benefits
o Sugar for flavor
 Positioning
o “Revitalizes body and mind”
o Broad positioning, drink suitable for any occasion when
consumer needs a lift
o Early adopters: athletes, clubbers, hipsters, gives drink
cachet/exclusivity
 Price
o At least 10 percent greater than nearest competitor
o Stakes out premium price point
o High price makes health claims plausible in minds of
consumers

Students can be asked to analyze these brand elements in terms of

their establishing points-of-parity and points-of-difference with other
beverage brands. Points-of-parity and points-of-difference can be
expressed in relation to usage occasions as well, as depicted in Figure
1 of the case.

Red Bull relied on a word-of-mouth strategy to build awareness for the

product in the early stages of its launch in Austria. The company made

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Red Bull available in convenience stores, bars, and clubs, giving
access to the groups of consumers who began drinking the product –
ravers, clubbers, young people – and formed the user imagery. As
more people began drinking Red Bull, word of the product’s benefits
spread throughout the country and beyond its borders. Because the
product was not available for sale outside Austria for five years, a
mystique developed around Red Bull and demand for it led to its
appearance on black markets in other countries. Here the discussion
can touch on topics from Chapter 6, such as buzz marketing and
mixing and matching communications. Students can be asked what
moves Red Bull made and what factors were unintentional that led to
a buzz marketing effect. Students can also be probed as to what other
companies can learn from the brand and how it is being marketed.

As Red Bull began to expand into other European countries, its

marketing program became more sophisticated. Many of the lessons
from Chapter 14: Managing Brands Over Geographical Boundaries
and Market Segments will be useful in this part of the discussion.
Students can be asked to enumerate the aspects of the marketing
program: television advertising, point-of-purchase marketing, sports
marketing, sampling, event marketing, and college marketing. Each
aspect can be analyzed for its contribution to brand equity. Red Bull
also exercised control over the distribution of the product, limiting the
number of locations and the type of locations in which the drink was
to be sold upon entry into a market. In the U.S., Red Bull adopted a
“cell” approach to break the country down into manageable
geographic segments. This limited launch strategy contributed to a
buzz marketing effect because it was designed to reach the early
adopters most likely to influence the general public. The Red Bull
refrigerated units that appeared in bars, clubs, and convenience
stores, as well as the van teams that distributed exclusively Red Bull,
served as push strategy. Students can compare Red Bull’s push
strategy with its pull strategy.

As Red Bull became more widely known, a variety of competitors

emerged. These competitors pitched consumers with a number of
positioning options, ranging from energy-focused to party-focused, but
none had the broad positioning of Red Bull. Students can discuss how
the competitors’ limited positioning options in terms of usage
occasion could effect Red Bull’s positioning, as discussed in Chapter
3. Students can also examine Red Bull’s strategies for dealing with
competition, which include pre-marketing, price premiums, and
adhering to its marketing program. Here it may also be useful to
discuss other alternatives, such as a lower-priced “fighter” brand
extension or an extension with a narrower positioning. This can lead
to the broader question of how Red Bull can continue its exponential

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growth as its markets near maturity. In its first market of Austria, Red
Bull achieved per-capita-consumption increases every year except one
since its debut, but the question remains if the company can replicate
this success in other markets. Lessons from Chapter 13: “Managing
Brands over Time”, can be applied here.

Key Lessons

 Red Bull was created from a strong strategic branding

foundation
 Red Bull’s ability to support health benefit claims with
product efficacy helped to create a successful marketing
program
 By targeting specific consumer segments and employing
clever push strategies, Red Bull built awareness and image
with little initial marketing expenditures
 Integrated marketing communications – and much
“buzz” marketing – helped to maximize the benefits of Red
Bull’s marketing campaigns

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Discussion Questions

1) Describe Red Bull’s sources of brand equity. Do these sources

change depending on the market or country?
 Sources of equity
o Product efficacy
o Hip image
o Limited availability
o Association with athletes/sports
o Multiple consumption occasions
o Sleek packaging
 Changes depending on market or country
o Red Bull employs the same marketing strategy in every
new market, so many sources of equity remain
consistent across markets
o Major consumption occasions may vary by market
o Importance of sports association varies by market

2) Analyze Red Bull’s marketing program in terms of how it

contributes to the brand’s equity. Discuss strengths and weaknesses.
 Highly integrated, all marketing efforts consistent with
fundamental promise of efficacy
 Limited availability at time of launch builds buzz awareness,
also highly targeted in terms of user imagery
 Advertising mainly awareness, but some image component in
terms of conveying consumption occasion and humor
 Sports marketing primarily image
 Point-of-purchase/on-premise mostly awareness, also image
in terms of placement
 Sampling program builds awareness, product dispensed
when consumers most likely to appreciate its affects

3) How can Red Bull maintain its marketing momentum? Would

you recommend that Red Bull develops any brand extensions? If
so, what would they be? Would you use the same marketing
strategy?

 Red Bull should continue expanding in other countries using

its successful positioning strategy based on occasions.
 Brand extensions could be considered, but marketing
research needs to be conducted to assess the effect of such
extensions on the image of the brand.
 Lower-priced extensions as well as extensions to new product
categories are possible options.

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  Consistency in the marketing strategy deployed is highly
recommended unless marketing research proves otherwise.
 Discussions of different examples would be very useful in this
case.

4) Evaluate Red Bull’s move into herbal teas, fast-food chains, and
magazines. Does it make sense for the company to expand into
these areas? What are the potential benefits and dangers?

 Evaluation is subject to class discussions and arguments

 Benefits
o Diversify and grow the business
o Capitalize on the diverse target markets
o Herbal tea would be consistent with the healthy image
o A magazine could generate good publicity to the brand
 Dangers
o Fast-food chains could be risky to the healthy image

5) Because product usage was not marketed as being limited to

one or even a few occasions, Red Bull users could continue to
use the product even as their priorities shifted. The case states
that, “a Red Bull consumer first attracted to the product as a
nightlife enhancer in his or her early twenties might later use
the drink as a morning pick-me-up or a revitalizer during a long
day of meetings.” How effective is Red Bull at advertising to
these varied groups?

 Successful among several age ranges (14-19; 20-29; and 29-

39: See Exhibit 2)
 Students are encouraged to evaluate some examples and
advertisements, and compare the effectiveness of this
strategy to the performance of the brand in the market.

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MTV – Building Brand Resonance
Teaching Notes

Summary

MTV was established in 1981 as a maverick pioneer in the burgeoning

cable television industry. Over the next 20 years, MTV moved from the
fringe of television culture in America to the core of pop culture in
countries all over the world. The key to MTV’s success in each market
was its ability to connect with the young consumer. As young
consumers grew older, the challenge for MTV was to establish
connections with new groups of young consumers. This led to a
constant cycle of reinvention. With a few exceptions, at each
crossroads MTV was able to find the right mix of music and culture to
capture the viewership of successive generations of young people,
both domestically and internationally. This case examines the key
decisions and factors that enabled MTV to accomplish its rise as a
global media network from its humble origins. The following questions
will be useful as a guide for class discussion:

1. What is the MTV brand image? How valuable are the MTV
brand associations? What should its core values be?
2. Describe the current sources of MTV’s brand equity. How have
they changed over time? How have they remained constant?
3. What is the role of music within MTV?
4. Technology is changing the way viewers watch television and
interact with programs. Discuss the role of the Internet and
technology within MTV. What has MTV done well to date to
integrate technology with the brand and what else should MTV
do?
5. MTV Networks includes many sister channels such as
Nickelodeon and Spike TV. How has MTV been positioned within
this network versus the other channels? Is this the right
strategy? What else would you do to optimize the MTV Network
brand portfolio?
6. Over the years, MTV has evolved from a channel about music to
a channel about the culture of music to a channel about culture.
What does the future hold for MTV—globally and domestically?

Teaching Objectives

1) To analyze the components and key issues of building a

media entertainment brand
2) To examine the value of awareness-building advertising
3) To review the process of building brand resonance

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 4) To overview establishing points-of-parity and points-of-
difference
5) To examine corporate branding strategies vs. product
branding strategies
6) To analyze managing a brand portfolio

Teaching Strategy

The MTV case, as the title indicates, details the process by which MTV
built brand resonance with consumers. The case includes a lot of
historical detail that students may or may not be familiar with. The
case also addresses many contemporary issues that may not be
familiar to older students. Yet, most everyone will have heard of and
watched MTV and will therefore be able to participate in the
discussion. This is a good case to use in the beginning of the term,
since it reinforces many of the points about building brand equity
from Chapter 1 and Chapter 2.

The case begins by recounting the early history of MTV. At the time of
its launch, the concept of music videos was relatively novel and
certainly the idea of an all-music video channel had not been seriously
considered by many television executives. Students can be asked to
list the elements of the brand, including the music videos, the “VJs,”
the logo, the studio from which broadcasts were taped, and so forth.
According to company employees, the name itself was selected for
lack of better alternatives, but the visual look of the channel, from the
videos themselves to the “VJ loft” to the moon landing logo, were
carefully designed and/or selected to reflect the core values and key
associations of the channel. Students can be asked to enumerate
these values and associations, which include music, youth culture,
subverting established culture, fun, no rules, no parents, creativity,
excitement, and so forth. A mental map is a fruitful way to capture
this input. Then students can identify how each element of the MTV
brand reinforced these values and associations. This discussion can be
tied in with lessons from Chapter 4: Choosing Elements to Build
Brand Equity. The other two main ways to build brand equity can also
be reviewed along the same lines.

MTV’s decision to make the channel the star over the individual
artists was key. It enabled the channel to reinvent itself numerous
times over the next 20 years without sacrificing equity built up in
artists or genres. While MTV did have strong associations with certain
genres – such as 80s pop, 90s gansta rap and grunge – that hurt the
image of the brand when these genres fell out of favor, the channel

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was able to capitalize on the next trend. This is analogous to pursuing
a corporate brand strategy over a product branding strategy. Students
can discuss the advantages and drawbacks of a corporate brand, as
detailed in Chapter 11. The videos and the stars MTV broadcast can
be thought of entities that provided secondary associations for the
channel to leverage in order to build brand equity. Students can
consider what associations this channel content provided and what
contributions to equity it made.

MTV’s initial marketing program was an integral part of its success

nationally. Students can be asked whether MTV needed to concentrate
on image or awareness in the early stages of brand building. The
answer, as the customer-based brand equity model indicates, is that
awareness should always be the first step. MTV knew from initial
results in its first markets that the target audience would respond
favorably to the channel, the hard part was getting cable providers
across the nation to carry the channel. So the marketing strategy was
designed to elicit customer demands from the cable companies that
they carry MTV. Class discussion can evaluate the strategy of using
celebrity endorsers in the advertising as well as the media buy
schedule that attacked key markets for a few weeks at a time until
demand was high enough that cable providers adopted the channel.

The large part of the discussion can center on how MTV achieved
brand resonance in its first era of growth in the early 1980s. Students
can apply each of the six brand building blocks to understand how
MTV viewers took the steps from brand salience to brand resonance.
In terms of the first step, brand salience, MTV was able to establish
deep awareness in its category because of the lack of competitors and
broad awareness because of the richness of the programming
available to viewers of the channel. With the second step, brand
performance, MTV’s stylish and artistic videos and design features, as
well as the programming of hot videos its viewers wanted to hear, led
to a high perception of brand performance among consumers. The
next step, brand imagery, is one area where MTV excelled above most
other cable networks. The television medium consists of images,
which made it easy for MTV to convey a variety of imagery
components and personality traits. Students can be asked to list MTV
imagery associations and personality traits, both historically and
currently.

Next, consumers brand judgments of MTV were typically positive

based on the following four components: brand quality, brand
credibility, brand consideration, and brand superiority. Students can
discuss how MTV achieved each of these four components. The quality
production values of the videos and other programs led to consumer

117
perceptions of quality. The down-to-earth VJs lent credibility to the
brand, as did the exclusive world premier videos and studio visits
from the major stars. MTV had high levels of brand consideration due
to the high awareness and the uniqueness of the product. For similar
reasons, and for the favorable consumer response to the brand, MTV
also achieved brand superiority. As a result, MTV attained brand
resonance.

The discussion can now move on to the four components of brand

resonance: behavioral loyalty, attitudinal attachment, sense of
community, and active engagement. Again, the instructor can solicit
examples of how MTV achieved each component. In the early years,
MTV built loyalty and attitudinal attachment primarily with the music
videos and the general look and feel of the channel. To build a sense
of community and active engagement, MTV used VJs, held contests,
hosted award shows, and ran some long-form programming. MTV
improved the sense of community and active engagement of its
viewers in the early 1990s by developing long-form programming such
as the Real World, Road Rules, and Beavis & Butthead. Further
developments in the 1990s included the live call-in show Total
Request Live (TRL), the Tom Green Show, and Undressed. With the
exception of TRL, none of the long-form programs mentioned above
were explicitly music-based. Instead, they were “musically-infused.”
This can lead to discussion of where MTV is headed and how it can
maintain resonance as it added new long-form programming such as
The Osbournes and MTV Cribs that did not expressly focus on music.

Among the many other topics of discussion include the numerous MTV
brand extensions. This can lead to a discussion of brand hierarchy and
the brand portfolio, and can be tied in with concepts from Chapter 12:
Introducing and Naming New Products and Brand Extensions. MTV’s
growth on the Internet, as well as competition from Internet music
sources, is another area for discussion. Another topic is MTV’s global
expansion, which can be related to the ideas from Chapter 14:
Managing Brands over Geographical Boundaries and Market
Segments. Finally, the class can conclude with discussion of MTV’s
longevity and the future challenges of remaining relevant and
reinventing the brand repeatedly. This topic can be tied in with
Chapter 13: Managing Brands over Time.

Key Lessons

 MTV used an innovative idea combined with brand

management to build a strong brand

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  Building awareness is the vital first step in the customer-
based brand equity model
 MTV designed its brand to be more powerful than the stars
featured in the content
 MTV found new ways to build brand resonance, including
long-form programming and interactive viewing
 MTV used constant reinvention and changed the tastes of its
viewers to establish long-term brand resonance

Discussion Questions

1) What is the MTV brand image? How valuable are the MTV
brand associations? What should its core values be?

 Youth
 Global + Local Channels
 Relevant
 Trendy

2) Describe the current sources of MTV’s brand equity. How have

they changed over time? How have they remained constant?

 Sources of equity
o Leading cable music channel, high availability
o Numerous image associations, multiple genres of
music represented
o Sustainable long-form programming attracts
repeated viewership
o High ratings among key teenage demographic,
particularly among females
 Changes over time
o Represented fewer genres originally, but audience
wasn’t as fragmented then
o Viewership not as heavily weighted toward young
teenagers in past
o Significantly less long-form programming in past,
significantly more videos, less lifestyle element to
channel early on

3) What is the role of music within MTV?

 The channel is the brand not the individual stars

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  Music is the original core of the business
 Culture of music and everything around it
 MTV is evolving into a network about culture

4) Technology is changing the way viewers watch television and

interact with programs. Discuss the role of the Internet and
technology within MTV. What has MTV done well to date to
integrate technology with the brand and what else should MTV
do?

 Internet builds for sense of community, active engagement

for MTV brand resonance
 Used in viewer votes, scrolling chat boxes, links for more
information
 Not as integrated into non-interactive content programs
on MTV
 Not a high-traffic destination for music and info online

5) MTV Networks includes many sister channels such as

Nickelodeon and Spike TV. How has MTV been positioned within
this network versus the other channels? Is this the right
strategy? What else would you do to optimize the MTV Network
brand portfolio?

 VH1 adopted older positioning, in turn made MTV’s

positioning younger, generally positive affect on equity
 MTV2 played more music, made many viewers
nostalgic for the way MTV “used to be,” potentially
negative affect on equity
 Various genre-specific offshoots reflective of
audience fragmentation, could lead to lower ratings for
parent network but only available on satellite and digital
cable networks at the time

6) Over the years, MTV has evolved from a channel about music to
a channel about the culture of music to a channel about culture.
What does the future hold for MTV—globally and domestically?

 After developing a successful model, global and local

competition is expected to be fierce. Students are
encouraged to discuss the emerging competitors in this
area.
 It is possible for MTV in the future to consider extending
the brand to different products that are consistent with
the “culture” theme.

120
 MTV might consider using the internet and the new
technological channels to reinforce the strength of the
brand.

121
Nike: Building a Global Brand
Teaching Notes

Summary

This case concerns the development of Nike's international marketing

program. Although Nike met with great success in thwarting Reebok's
competitive thrust in the U.S., overseas markets posed many
challenges. The case concentrates on the European and Asian markets
and provides some historical marketing perspectives. The issue faced
by Nike is how to best build global brand equity. The case focuses on
some key marketing decisions in 1992 and 1993 and then focuses on
the subsequent challenges Nike faced, including an image crisis as
well as intensified competition. Further, a discussion on expanding
Nike’s brand portfolio is presented. Class discussion can revolve
around the following sets of questions that students should consider
before class:

1. How would you characterize Nike’s brand image and sources of

brand equity in the United States?
2. How have Nike’s efforts to become a global corporation affect
its sources of brand equity and brand image in the United
States, Europe, and Asia?
3. Are sponsorships and endorsements vital to Nike’s business?
For instance, what effect would Nike becoming an official
sponsor for the Olympics have on the company’s relationship
with consumers?
4. Why did Nike become a target for critics of globalization? Do
you think Nike’s response to allegations of unfair global labor
practices was appropriate and/or effective? Is Nike truly
concerned about these issues?
5. Evaluate Nike’s acquisitions and the brands now under its
control. Do these acquisitions make sense for Nike? What, if any,
brands should Nike try to acquire next?
6. How important is “fashion” to Nike? Are they a performance
apparel company, or a fashion company? What is more
important for Nike when they enter a new market like China?
Fashion or performance?
7. Should Nike do anything different to defend its position now
that Adidas and Reebok have joined forces?

Teaching Objectives

1) To examine issues in global branding

2) To demonstrate the value of integrated marketing

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 3) To consider how to manage a strong brand
4) To explore PR issues for established brands

Teaching Strategy

The Nike case is similar to the Levi’s Dockers case in that it is a brand
with which every student will no doubt have experiences and
opinions. The value to the case discussion is that students can still
learn some valuable lessons about Nike and their marketing expertise.
A good place to start the case discussion, after a quick summary of
the historical origins of the brand, is in 1988, a time when Reebok
held a sizable market share lead (30% to Nike’s 18%). In fact, some
students may have already been exposed to the HBR case that deals
with Reebok’s integrated marketing communication program from
that time. Students can be asked to identify Reebok’s and Nike’s
brand image at that time. Essentially, Reebok has concentrated on
creating associations to “comfortable,” “fashionable,” and “for
women.” If students seem to be struggling, just remind them that
Reebok’s growth was driven by aerobics shoes and then ask them
what associations might that suggest. Prior to 1988, Reebok was also
seen as a hip, cool brand but, by this time, they were seen as a much
more mainstream brand.

The Nike brand image should be easier for students to elicit. Key
brand associations were created to “performance,” “high tech,” “top
athletes (e.g., Michael Jordan),” and “sports.” It should be pointed
out how consistent, cohesive, and reinforcing this brand image was
(and still is). It is important to ask students how this brand image was
created to provide a point of reference for the discussion about
Europe and other areas of international expansion. Basically, the
brand was built from the “ground up” in a “grass roots” effort. It is
worthwhile to note the duality of the brand image and how this
characterizes strong brands. Nike has strong product performance
associations (remind students what an innovation air technology was)
as well as user and usage imagery. Nike’s advertising in general, and
the “Just Do It” campaign in particular, can be analyzed some in terms
of its contribution to brand equity. The power of the slogan – a three
word summary of the self-empowerment that the brand represents –
can be emphasized.

After analyzing the Reebok and Nike brand images, their respective
positionings can be considered, time permitting. Nike’s point-of-
difference is clearly performance. Reebok’s point-of-difference was
style. Their respective points-of-parity follow from there. Students can
be asked to judge the two positionings in terms of desirability and

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deliverability. The former is a question of how strongly the “pyramid
of influence” operates in this market. At the top of the pyramid is the
competitive athlete, which makes up roughly 5 percent of shoe
buyers. Next, the “weekend warrior” or casual athlete makes up the
next 15 percent. Since the vast majority of athletic shoes are never
used for anything more athletic than walking, the base of the pyramid
– 80 percent of the total – is the non-user. Some students might argue
for Nike’s high-end trickle down approach of using top athletes to
represent the brand, while others will endorse Reebok’s mass-market
approach. Deliverability is less controversial however as Reebok’s
UBU is a huge misstep as compared to the focused, well-executed Just
Do It campaign.

The depth of the analysis of the U.S. experience will depend on the
time available. To address the challenge of building a global brand,
students must appreciate how the brand was built in the U.S. In
particular, it is important to point out Nike’s internal brand mantra,
“authentic athletic performance,” and how it helped to guide brand-
building efforts. Once the American experience has been covered to
the degree desired, discussion can switch to the European market. A
good opening question here is to ask students how brands should be
built in a different geographical market. The answer, of course, is that
they must be built from the “bottom up” just as had been the case in
the original domestic market. The actual means by which they will
built, however, may differ. In other words, the strategy will be the
same – awareness first and image next – but the actual tactics in
terms of the three main ways to build brand equity may differ. With
this backdrop, students can then be asked what challenges existed for
building brand equity in the European market in 1992. Perhaps the
most important challenges were that: 1) the brand did not have the
history nor heritage in the market and was starting more from scratch
and 2) European consumers may vary in significant ways from
Americans in terms of their sports experience. Students can be
probed as to the severity of these challenges. Students from Europe
may want to be asked to comment on attitudes towards sports over
there.

Next, students can be asked how Nike changed its “formula” from the
U.S. market. As the case points out, they over-relied on their current
U.S. marketing program, mainly for budget reasons. A key lesson for
students is that just because an ad campaign or some other aspect of
the marketing program seems to “work” in an overseas market
doesn’t mean that it the right thing to do to build brand equity.
Europeans may have liked and been entertained by Nike’s advertising
but not reached the level of understanding about the brand that Nike
would have desired. In particular, the mantra of “authentic athletic

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performance” needs to be translated in a meaningful way. Nike had to
change its sponsorship approach, making soccer a big part of this
shift. Nike also had to change its advertising, making it less
aggressive and more representative of consumer tastes in Europe. It
also had to become more involved on a grassroots level with club
sports, school teams, and local events. Students should be probed as
to what building the brand from the “bottom up” or with a grassroots
approach entails. Nike’s approach in Asia was similar, with similar
results.

The case discussion can be extended with a look at Nike’s image

problems in the late 1990s. Students can identify the various
contributors to these problems, such as labor relations, swoosh
ubiquity, endorsement proliferation, and aggressive marketing. Nike
became a lighting rod for criticism from various citizens groups, both
domestically and abroad. Here, a discussion of the challenges of
becoming a global brand in the 21st century can be useful. A global
economy enables brands to vastly expand their reach geographically,
yet at the same time accountability increases as well. Students can
discuss Nike’s steps to remedy its various image problems, evaluating
them for their effectiveness. Also, the topic of global marketing can be
addressed here. Students can enumerate the pros (e.g., economies of
scale in production and distribution, lower marketing costs,
consistency in brand image, scope, etc.) and cons (e.g., differences in:
consumer behavior, consumer response to marketing, brand and
product development, competitive environment, legal environment,
etc.) of global marketing. Nike’s marketing activities can be evaluated
in terms of how they dealt with these benefits and drawbacks.
Chapter 14 contains much information on managing international
brands.

Complicating Nike’s ability to grow its brand was a global economic

downturn in the late 1990s. Regardless of the prevailing economic
conditions, Nike faced many challenges achieving growth with its
brand. In many markets, demand for its footwear was not as high as it
had historically been. Nike made successful moves into apparel, but
its equipment business was still a small piece of the business.
Students can discuss the benefits and hazards of leveraging Nike’s
brand equity over a wide range of non-footwear products.
International growth continued to be strong, however, particularly in
Europe and Asia. Discussion can include an evaluation of Nike’s
future prospects for growth in international markets. Latin America,
Africa, and Asia, especially China, could be thoroughly analyzed. Also,
Nike’s brand portfolio expansion through acquisitions is an interesting
issue to debate and analyze..

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As a high profile brand, Nike is always in the news, and students
always like to talk about the brand. The key to guiding this discussion
is to make sure students are applying course concepts to do so.

Key Lessons

 Importance of creating a strong foundation for brand

equity
o Depth/breadth, rich, cohesive brand image
 Advantages of brand mantra for brand focus
 Importance of proper positioning
 Value of strong corporate brand
 Dangers in taking short-cuts in building a strong global
brand

Discussion Questions

1) How would you characterize Nike’s brand image and sources of

brand equity in the United States?
 Brand image
o Elite athletes
o High technology
o Expensive/premium
o Running
o Irreverent
o Aggressive
o Cool
 Sources of equity
o Heritage as an athletics-focused brand
o Emphasis on technological advancement
o Association with top athletes
o Premium price positioning
o Attitude as conveyed in marketing program
 Transferability
o Image and equity would work for most sports
o For some newer action sports, associations not as
transferable
o Sport is a constant in society, associations could
transfer across
geographical boundaries
o Not as transferable for non-athletics products

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2) How have Nike’s efforts to become a global corporation affect
its sources of brand equity and brand image in the United
States, Europe, and Asia?

 Requires a diversified portfolio of athletes,

covering all popular sports globally.
 Consider the “bottom-up” approach in each
market, while maintaining the original strategy of building
awareness first, and then image later.
 Students are encouraged to compare Nike’s image
and performance in different countries.

3) Are sponsorships and endorsements vital to Nike’s business?

For instance, what effect would Nike becoming an official
sponsor for the Olympics have on the company’s relationship
with consumers?

 Sponsorship and endorsement played a key role in

Nike’s U.S. success
 Sponsorship and endorsement also important for
establishing positive image abroad
 Image of Nike in U.S. tied to elite athletes, Nike
actually began reducing number of endorsers because
associations sufficiently high
 High-profile sponsorship probably more important
in regions where Nike image not as high in terms of
performance

4) Why did Nike become a target for critics of globalization? Do

you think Nike’s response to allegations of unfair global labor
practices was appropriate and/or effective? Is Nike truly
concerned about these issues?

 Nike very recognizable global brand

 Labor ethics very hot topic
 High cost of shoes & high image component of
brand resentment

5) Evaluate Nike’s acquisitions and the brands now under its

control. Do these acquisitions make sense for Nike? What, if any,
brands should Nike try to acquire next?

 Evaluation is subject to class discussion and

arguments
 Brand diversity might lead to additional growth

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  Consider brand image issues

6) How important is “fashion” to Nike? Are they a performance

apparel company, or a fashion company? What is more
important for Nike when they enter a new market like China?
Fashion or performance?

 Primarily performance, but fashion is crucial to the

longevity of the brand
 Consider Beijing 2008 Olympics
 Open for class discussions and arguments

7) Should Nike do anything different to defend its position now

that Adidas and Reebok have joined forces?

 Nike should acknowledge that global competition

is becoming fiercer.
 The brand strategy should be maintained, so the
company should continue pursuing successful global
athletes.
 It is possible to consider acquiring other brands to
diversify the company’s portfolio.

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iPod: Creating an Iconic Brand
Teaching Notes

Summary

This case is about the evolution of the iPod that appears as a cultural
phenomenon in the streets, schools, universities and even in the
workplace. The growth of iPod all over the world made it “the
walkman of the twenty-first century”. Apple had dominated the digital
music market with its iPod but it is now faced with the challenge of
how to defend its market share and prevent iPod killers. Apple is
currently facing fierce competition from strong players such as
SanDisk and the software giant Microsoft that developed its “Zune” to
compete with the iPod. The challenge is not only about the
competition faced but it also involves the lobbying and legislative
pressures being put on Apple to open up its system and allow songs of
any format to be played on the iPod. This could represent a significant
threat on Apple’s dominant market share. Class discussion can
revolve around the following questions that students should consider
before class:

1. What is the most important feature of the iPod? Why?

2. Apple continues to operate a closed system (i.e. music
downloaded from iTMS can only be played on iPods). Do you
recommend Apple continue this strategy, or should it open its
systems to users of any type of digital music player?
3. Has Apple done a good job of marketing the iPod, or have they
relied too heavily on word of mouth and buzz to grow the brand?
4. Apple has extended its distribution network to include large
retailers such as Circuit City and Best Buy. How important are
these outlets to Apple? Should they be concerned with not
having full control over the customer retail experience – control
that they have in the Apple Stores?
5. What should Apple do next to sustain iPod sales? Create a new
ad campaign? Introduce a new version of the iPod that plays
videogames?

Teaching Strategy

This case can generate and support discussion on a number of topics,

e.g. high- tech marketing, creation of an iconic brand, continuous
product development, etc. The case can also be supplemented in a
number of ways to incorporate current developments. Specifically, this
is an excellent case for demonstrating, among other things, the:
1. Bundled products

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 2. Importance of continuous product innovations
3. Necessity of having strong and wide distribution network
4. Strength of a brand (iPod) to the extent of creating new
processes (Podcasting)

It is successful to begin the case with a quick review of Apple’s history

to provide some perspective and a few quick lessons. Apple’s early
start in the home computers, developing the Mac computers and the
iMac then launching the iPod. Here it would be useful if the reasons of
decline of the products preceding iPod were discussed in order to
identify the areas of weaknesses for Apple and how these could be
avoided in order to prevent the iPod from facing the same destiny.
It is also important to pinpoint the differentiation strategy that was
employed by Apple in its iPod and highlight its most important
features. Furthermore, the role of a flexible marketing department
that quickly responds to the market needs is to be presented and how
it provides an advantage. Having discussed this, the importance of
continuous product innovations has to be stressed upon. R&D is of
extreme importance in order to always stay ahead of competitors and
is even of more importance in high – tech sectors and in gadgets
marketing as this area is characterized with an extremely dynamic
nature.

Having discussed the above points, it would be instructive if the

discussion moves further to include the distribution system of the
iPod. Also, it would be of benefit if iPod’s closed system is thoroughly
analyzed with the identification of its main advantages and
disadvantages.

The economics of the iPod and its use of a “reversed razor” model is
also a subject that could be tackled to provide the students of an
understanding of the different models employed for the sales of
bundles products. This would reflect that there is no one and only way
of doing things. On the contrary, even an opposite of what has been
the norm might be a used model that yields profits.

The importance of having a strong distribution channel and its role in

the success of a product could be then discussed. Different ways of
distribution channels expansion along with its pros and cons would be
useful if discussed with the students and their input on the best ways
for distributing such an electronic innovation would be constructive.

Competitors’ stepping in into successful markets is always an issue.

Here, the light is to be shed on the fact that no product always stays
on the top without facing competition from its rivals. What are the
various ways in which a leader could defend its position and maintain

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its market share? What role could be played marketing? Finally the
discussion is to be wrapped up with the actions Apple has to take in
order to defend its iPod?

Key Lessons

 Success factors for a new product

 How to create an iconic brand
 Continuous product innovations
 Advantages of employing differentiated strategies
 Advantages of having a strong and wide distribution network
 Importance of having continuous strong marketing efforts

Discussion Questions

1. What is the most important feature of the iPod? Why?

 Its high storage capacity.
 Enabled users to carry thousand of songs in their pockets.
2. Apple continues to operate a closed system (i.e. music
downloaded from iTMS can only be played on iPods). Do you
recommend Apple continue this strategy, or should it open its
systems to users of any type of digital music player?
 It is recommended that Apple should open up its systems
voluntarily before it becomes a must.
 It is evident that sooner or later the closed system would
be opened up due to lobbying and legislative pressures.
 Such a closed system would not sustain for a long time in
the global world we are living in nowadays.
 Apple should start looking for other ways to keep its
leading position in the iPOd market.

3. Has Apple done a good job of marketing the iPod, or have they
relied too heavily on word of mouth and buzz to grow the brand?
 Apple relied too heavily on word of mouth and buzz to
grow the brand
 iPod now has 78% market share which is very high
percentage but if more marketing efforts are done the
overall market base would increase leading to higher
number of users of the iPod.
 Creative marketing campaigns could be done leveraging
on the success of the iPod
 A creative cartoon character might be developed as an
iPod character
 More marketing efforts are needed specially after the
“iSheep attack ads “developed by SanDisk.

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4. Apple has extended its distribution network to include large
retailers such as Circuit City and Best Buy. How important are
these outlets to Apple? Should they be concerned with not
having full control over the customer retail experience – control
that they have in the Apple Stores?
 These outlets has extreme importance for Apple
 Made the iPod available to a wider audience
 This extension in Apple’s distribution network led to the
halo effect
 No real worry could stem from this distribution extension
as it had been mentioned that the “ consumer experience”
at Apple’s own stores was not that satisfactory but still
Apple could maintain some sort of control by
o Having its own salespeople within the big electronic
retail chains to sell its products
o Provide the sales people of the retail chains
(RadioShack, Circuit City,..etc.) with extensive sales
and customer service training.

5. What should Apple do next to sustain iPod sales? Create a new

ad campaign?
Introduce a new version of the iPod that plays videogames?
 Product Improvements
 Support product improvements with strong marketing
campaigns
 More joint efforts with cellular phones’ companies
 Strong Public Relations activities to publicize for Apple’s
new ideas and improvements
 Various creative ideas are expected form the students

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DuPont: Managing a Corporate Brand
Teaching Notes

Summary

This case reviews the history of the DuPont brand and details the key
factors in the brand’s rise among the elite science companies in the
world. The company’s emphasis on developing consumer applications
for scientific breakthroughs, combined with its strong corporate brand
and the ingredient branding program, have made DuPont a household
name in a variety of consumer and business-to-business markets. As
the company continued to pursue growth at the turn of the 21 st
century, it expanded into the biotechnology industry. To reflect its
growing business, DuPont replaced its long-standing tagline “Better
Things for Better Living” with the new “Miracles of Science” tagline.
The question remained, however, how this latest reinvention of
DuPont would affect the corporate brand.

Discussion can involve the following questions that students should

consider before class:
1) How would you characterize DuPont’s brand equity? What
factors contribute to the company’s equity? How can
DuPont best preserve that equity?
2) Compare the benefits and drawbacks of a corporate brand
strategy with that of an ingredient brand strategy. Do you
think DuPont should emphasize one strategy more in the
future?
3) Evaluate the “Miracles of Science” tagline. Do you think
this effectively communicates DuPont’s positioning as the
world’s premier science company? Does it support DuPont’s
ingredient branding strategy? Do you think it has potential
to last as long as the “Better Things for Better Living”
tagline?
4) DuPont does not make many finished goods, instead
supplying ingredient components to manufacturers through
licensing agreements. What are the risks in a business
model such as this? Can DuPont mitigate these risks?

Teaching Objectives

1) To examine corporate branding strategies

2) To examine ingredient branding strategies
3) To review issues in managing a brand hierarchy and
brand portfolio

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 4) To evaluate communication strategies for ingredient and
corporate brands and consider how to update them
5) To consider how to preserve brand equity as the focus of
a business changes over time

Teaching Strategy

The DuPont video case covers a variety of topics and can be used at
almost any point in the course. The three main topics – corporate
branding, ingredient branding, and business-to-business branding –
are broad and important and support much discussion. First, the
brand hierarchy can be placed on the board to illustrate DuPont’s sub-
branding approach to ingredient branding. The DuPont name is at the
top of the hierarchy, and each of the ingredient sub-brands, such as
Stainmaster® carpets or Lycra® fabrics, can be grouped underneath
according to product category. Some sub-brands, such as DuPont
Automotive Finishes and DuPont Flooring Systems, do not carry their
own coined name but instead leverage the DuPont corporate name. It
might be useful to first analyze DuPont’s ingredient branding strategy,
and follow this with a discussion of the corporate brand and how it
relates to the ingredient brands.

If the Intel case has already been used, then the topic of ingredient
brands will be familiar to students. The text reviews the concept of
ingredient branding in Chapter 7 and offers several guidelines that
can serve as a backdrop for this discussion (e.g., ingredients must
matter and be instrumental to product performance in some way;
ingredients must add value and be differentiated; ingredients must be
noticeable or visible or there must be some means to identify and
signal its presence; and there must be OEM or producer cooperation).
The case provides an overview of three well-known DuPont ingredient
brands (Teflon®, Stainmaster®, and Lycra®), plus a fourth emerging
ingredient brand, Solae™. Students can discuss how these ingredient
brands were marketed in terms of ingredient brand strategies and
guidelines in Chapter 7.

DuPont sought to build awareness for its ingredient brands using both
“push” and “pull” strategies. The push strategies developed from
manufacturing or retail partnerships, where the ingredient brand was
promoted on the product packaging or with in-store promotion. The
advertising campaigns directed at consumers comprised the “pull”
strategy. Chapter 5 contains discussion of using push and pull in
marketing. It may also be useful to discuss how ingredient brands
benefit retailers and manufacturers. Manufacturers who make
products containing DuPont ingredients enjoy the positive
associations consumers have with the ingredient name and/or the

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DuPont name. DuPont also shares some of the production,
development, and promotion costs with its manufacturers. Retailers
can attain larger operating margins because of the price premiums
commanded by products containing DuPont ingredients. Retailers also
receive additional promotional support from DuPont.

A number of issues can then be covered concerning corporate

branding (see Chapter 11). A good place to start is by asking students
to describe DuPont’s corporate brand image and then examining how
it achieved that image. A useful guide for the discussion of DuPont’s
image is the four corporate image dimensions outline in Figure 11-11
of the text. The DuPont corporate marketing program, described in
the case, is a rich area for discussion. It started in 1907 with the
development of the DuPont logo. In 1909, the DuPont name was
formally established as the corporate umbrella brand to appear on all
products. The marketing of DuPont’s science image began in earnest
with the 1939 introduction of its “Better things for better living
through chemistry” slogan. Students can discuss the various activities
used to supplement this image over the five-decade span of the
tagline’s usage.

The corporate image of DuPont also affects the image of its ingredient
brands. Chapter 11 refers to a study in which consumers with positive
attitudes toward the DuPont corporate brand were more likely to
respond favorably to advertising claims from Stainmaster® and were
therefore more likely to buy the product. Inversely, negative attitudes
toward DuPont might lead consumers to not buy products containing
its ingredient sub-brands. Sub-brands can also influence consumer’s
image of parent brands, especially if there exists strong linkage, as is
the case with DuPont. Students can discuss the degree to which
DuPont leverages its corporate name in its sub-brands and determine
which category DuPont falls into of the five corporate/product
relationship categories as defined by Gray and Smeltzer.

Another topic to cover is business-to-business marketing and

branding. Most of DuPont’s 2000 brand and trademark registrations
were for products that targeted industry and business customers,
rather than mass-market consumers. Students can discuss the various
marketing methods used to reach these industry and business
consumers, such as public relations, advertising in industry
periodicals and journals, and client relationships. DuPont wants
companies who buy its products to consider its corporate name and
its ingredient brands’ added-value that can provide a number of
positive associations for the finished product, such as quality, safety,
and reliability.

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To conclude the discussion, the new tagline “The miracles of science ®”
should be considered. Students can discuss the tagline as it relates to
DuPont’s traditional chemicals business and its recent expansion into
biotechnologies. They can be asked if it supports both aspects of
DuPont’s business, and if it leaves room for further expansion.
Students can also consider the question: How will DuPont’s broader
focus on biotechnology affect the equity the company established as a
result of its traditional chemicals business?

Key Lessons

 Success factors for ingredient branding strategy

o Must convince consumer that ingredient matters
o Must convince consumer that branded ingredient is
better
o Must create brand logo and means of identification
o Must support strong pull program
o Must enlist trade and retail cooperation
 Value of push and pull marketing programs
 Rationale for umbrella branding
 Role of branding in a business-to-business setting
 Need for reinvention in high-tech business environment

Discussion Questions

1) How would you characterize DuPont’s brand equity? What

factors contribute to the company’s equity? How can DuPont
best preserve that equity?
 DuPont’s equity
o Science & technology leader
o Innovation
o Ingredient brands in numerous industries, high
awareness and positive image to consumers and
businesses
o Strong corporate brand, high awareness and
image
o Biotechnology not yet a big contributor to
equity
 Preserve equity
o Answers will vary

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2) Compare the benefits and drawbacks of a corporate brand
strategy with that of an ingredient brand strategy. Do you think
DuPont should emphasize one strategy more in the future?

 Corporate Brand Benefits:

o Strong corporate brands influence consumer
behavior, can be leveraged across entire brand
hierarchy, extendible and transferable to brand
extensions
 Corporate Brand Drawbacks:
o Difficult to logically build an umbrella brand over
disparate product categories; corporate brand can
suffer if one sub-brand develops negative
associations
 Ingredient Brand Benefits:
o Equity built at product level is easy to transfer to
brand extensions, can leverage many secondary
associations from partners, can be an ingredient in
many disparate markets
 Ingredient Brand Drawbacks:
o Equity built at product level is difficult to transfer to
new products, brand susceptible to negative
secondary associations from partners, some loss of
control over brand, challenge of developing
consistent marketing message if ingredient used in
many different markets

3) Evaluate the “Miracles of Science” tagline. Do you think this

effectively communicates DuPont’s positioning as the world’s
premier science company? Does it support DuPont’s ingredient
branding strategy? Do you think it has potential to last as long
as the “Better Things for Better Living” tagline?
 Tagline is memorable and aspirational
 Strong link to science heritage
 Conveys that DuPont finds applications for its scientific
discovery, which is consistent with former tagline
 Supports ingredient branding, each ingredient brand can
be thought of as an individual “miracle”

4) DuPont does not make many finished goods, instead supplying

ingredient
components to manufacturers through licensing agreements.
What are the risks in a business model such as this? Can DuPont
mitigate these risks?

137
 Consider issues like misuse of the ingredients by
manufacturers, counterfeiting, and brand equity dilution.
 class discussions and arguments are encouraged to
analyze both options.

138
Dockers: Creating a Sub-brand
Teaching Notes

Summary

This case concerns Levi-Strauss' introduction of the Dockers line of

pants. Although the case may be taught to emphasize a number of
different points, perhaps the most interesting issues relate to the
brand image and brand equity of Levi's and how they affect and are
affected by the introduction of new products. Class discussion can
center on the following three questions that students should consider
before class:

1) How would you characterize Levi’s branding strategy in

general? What are the positive aspects? Are there any negative
aspects?
2) Analyze Dockers’ communication strategy at the time of the
launch. How did it fit in with past Levi’s advertising efforts?
How did it contribute to brand equity?
3) How would you characterize the Dockers brand image? What
makes up its brand equity? Evaluate the move to expand the line
into the bedding, bath, and luggage markets.
4) Describe some of the changes in the Dockers marketing strategy
from its debut. Has LS&Co. maintained a consistent enough
marketing message? Is it well-positioned strategically and
tactically to maintain its strong leadership status in the coming
years?
5) Dockers missed out on the “wrinkle free” trend when it first
surfaced. Not incorporating this technology into pants hurt the
company. Years later, Dockers embraced technology in its
products, creating the Thermal Adapt Kahki and Perspiration
Guard shirt. Was adding this technology to their products the
right move, or did Dockers “go too far” in adding these features
to their clothes?
6) Evaluate Dockers’ decision to stop selling products directly to
consumers on its website. Dockers’ main competitors (e.g., Gap,
J.Crew, and Abercrombie & Fitch) are heavily involved in online
retailing. Should Dockers reconsider their decision?
7) Imagine that you are John Goodman and have just been named
as the head of the Dockers brand. What are your priorities?
What do you do first?

Teaching Objectives

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 1) To introduce the scope of branding decisions and the value of
the customer-based brand equity framework.
2) To demonstrate the value of multiple brand elements and sub-
brands.
3) To illustrate the importance of blending “push” and “pull” in
marketing a brand.
4) To examine the effects of changing demographics on marketing
strategies.
5) To show how strategies and tactics change over the product
(and brand) life cycle.

Teaching Strategy

This is a highly relevant case to students as virtually every student

will have worn a pair of Levi’s at one time or another and generally
will be aware of the brand’s marketing efforts over the years. It is a
good case to teach in one of the first classes as it generates discussion
and covers a lot of ground.

The history of the brand is an interesting one with several important

lessons. A good place to start is by noting the brand’s historical roots
as the first brand of tough, rugged jeans and its evolution to a
standard bearer of the jeans category and a symbol of freedom and
independence. Levi’s mistake of over-diversification is worth noting,
especially if students have had the opportunity to see the out-of-print
— but still available at many schools! — half hour “Not by Jeans
Alone” video on their failed line of men’s Tailored Classics suits. This
video can be shown before class to interested students or in-class if
the case is taught over two sessions. (It also is interesting to juxtapose
this video with the case video on Dockers – LS&Co.’s since Steve
Goldstein appears in both although they are shot 15 years apart!!)
Levi’s attempt to make apparel to suit almost any person and any
lifestyle, all under the Levi’s name, clearly stretched the brand in too
many directions in the early 1980s.

LS&Co.’s “back to basics” approach to get the brand back on its feet
is worth noting. To improve profitability, LS&Co moved in two
directions: 1) improved relations with retailers; and 2) re-focused
Levi’s brand name and image with consumers. In other words, LS&Co
adopted a classic “push and pull” strategy as part of their
revitalization. Students should appreciate how this was done and why
it was done. This “back to basics” approach is one that many firms
need to adopt when their brands encounter troubles. On the demand
side, many core businesses were sold and greater emphasis was
placed on basic jeans and corduroy lines as a means to preserve the

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company’s values and traditions. Advertising played a critical role in
creating the desired brand image with the following associations:
- Honest - Approachable
- Classic - Universal
- Contemporary - Independent
- Comfortable
Students can be asked how easy it was be to achieve this brand
image. The answer is not easy at all – several pairs of associations
would, on the surface, seem to be contradictory (e.g., “classic” and
“contemporary” as well as “universal” and “independent”). The “501
Blues” campaign, described in the case, did a remarkable job
targeting 12-24 year olds and having the desired effect.

The net result of all these new initiatives was that the brand began to
thrive again. All was well until LS&Co. was forced to confront their
demographic destiny – the baby boomers making up their key
audience were aging and were not buying as many jeans. At this point
in the discussion, it is important for students to recognize that all
brands need to bring in new customers, although some brands need to
more than others. Other brands that faced similar demographic
challenges, such as Cadillac, can be discussed. Chapter 13 of the text
provides some useful background discussion in that regard. The needs
of Levi’s aging baby boom target market and the marketing
opportunity that existed there can then be discussed. The bulk of the
case discussion can then turn to how LS&Co. branded its “New
Casuals.” Students should be encouraged to apply basic concepts
from Chapters 4-7 of the book in terms of how build brand equity. The
three main ways to build brand equity should be examined in turn:
1) Choosing brand elements
- Name (Dockers)
- Logo (Interlocking wings and anchors)
- Hangtag (Women lead off ship by formally dressed man
but looking at relaxed, casually dressed man)
2) Develop supporting marketing program
- Product (Emphasis on style, versatility, and comfort by
inclusion of 100% cotton, pleated, washed fabric with
“reverse silhouette” design, and variety of colors)
- Price (Moderate/Upper-moderate)
- Channels (Dockers in-store shop & unique displays)
- Communications (Ad campaign)
3) Leverage secondary associations
- Use of sub-branding strategy with Levi’s brand name

Students should consider the logic and consistency of this strategy

and the role these different tactics had in building brand equity. For
example, in terms of choosing brand elements, some students will be

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skeptical as to whether or not LS&Co really thought of the brand
elements as “empty buckets” with no inherent associations or
meanings. There is a strong nautical theme suggesting that perhaps
the initial positioning with the pants was in terms of companions to
top-siders or similar products. Nevertheless, the real equity is not
being built there but in the supporting marketing program. Here,
students should recognize how well-designed and implemented the
marketing program was. At the heart of it all was the right product,
and students must appreciate how important the right product is to
creating brand equity. Some fruitful discussion can address the “push”
and “pull” aspects of the program. The Dockers in-store shops were
truly innovative and trend-setting and should be reviewed. The “pull”
side is more complex and it is worthwhile for students to analyze its
likely contribution to building brand equity. Some thoughts along
these lines are as follows. The potential contribution of the
introductory ads were to both:
- Build awareness
- Create image
- User imagery (e.g., age)
- Usage imagery (e.g., versatility)
- Product benefits
- Comfort
- Style

Any ad can potentially work at both levels (awareness and image), but
it is rare that both can be strongly emphasized. It is hard for any one
ad to be able to do so much – building brand awareness typically
involves much brand and product exposure, which almost necessarily
comes at the expense of information that would enhance image. Most
likely, the ads worked best at the awareness level: The strong product
focus (some critics claimed it was the first use of the “buttcam” in
advertising and well-constructed slogan (“If you’re not wearing
Dockers, you’re just wearing pants”) helped to get the word out as to
what the brand is all about – a prerequisite for building brand equity.
Note too that the ads actually referred to “Levi’s 100% cotton
Dockers.” The inclusion of the type of fabric cleverly served as a
buffer between Levi’s (known for jeans) and Dockers (which wanted to
be known for pants). It may be useful to have students diagnose the
sources of equity that Levi’s sought to bring to Dockers (e.g., quality,
physical comfort, style, heritage) and sources of equity Levi’s wished
to create distinctly for Dockers (e.g., 100% cotton, dress casual, and
psychological comfort).

Not every response to the introductory Dockers television ads was

positive. In reviewing the ads, ADWEEK magazine sniffed, “It’s like a
lot of yuppie crotches talking to one another.” Students can be

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probed as to what is missing in the introductory marketing program,
e.g., by contrasting the image of Levi’s jeans to Dockers. The early
ads focused on awareness rather than image, and students can
evaluate the relative importance of both components in an
introductory ad campaign. After running variations of the introductory
campaign for a couple of years, Dockers injected some imagery and
personality to the brand with a stylish new ad campaign using the tag
line “Relax. You’re Among Friends.” These ads injected humor and
portrayed a relaxed life style by showing Dockers wearers at work and
play. These ads could be interpreted as bolstering the user and usage
imagery which had been somewhat lacking in the introductory
campaign (e.g., who should wear the pants and where). By 1991,
Dockers approached $700 million in pants sales (with another $200
million in shirts sales), awareness was sky high (90% in target market,
and ownership penetration was at 40% for men 25-44 (owning 2 ½
pairs on average). A new campaign, “Nobody Does Colors Like
Dockers,” targeted current users in an attempt to get them to buy
more varieties of pants. Each ad featured a different color. By 1991,
however, some cracks emerged in the Dockers image as a younger
generation found the pants as lacking in relevance (see video case).

The younger generation of consumers felt that while Dockers

addressed the needs of their fathers, they felt that the brand did not
cater to their fashion needs. This would be a good place in the
discussion to observe the difficulty of creating a positioning or
positionings of appealing to broad demographic groups. Dockers
attempted to improve the image of its pants among younger
consumers with the “Nice Pants” campaign. After the “Nice Pants”
campaign had run for three years, Dockers switched to “One Leg at a
Time,” a slogan that failed to connect with consumers. In mid-1999,
after one year of “One Leg at a Time,” Dockers reinstated the “Nice
Pants” tagline. The discussion at this point could touch back on the
task of keeping the brand relevant and attracting new consumers over
time.

There are a number of ways to wrap up the case. One way is to put
the brand hierarchy on the board and consider “big picture” issues of
how LS&Co. should manage their brands. In doing so, it is important
to include Slates, LS&Co.’s new dress slacks. Questions can be raised
as to whether there is — or should be — a good brand migration
strategy. Questions can also be raised about brands below the family
brand level. Dockers had many varieties of Dockers, including two
sub-brands – Dockers Recode and Dockers Exact – and a variety of
branded pants types, including the Go Khaki and the Mobile Pant.
Students can discuss the key challenge of moving a brand forward:
deciding what to change and what to preserve. Updating the case,

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Levi’s recent struggles in the jeans category can be brought up (their
market share dipped considerably during the latter half of the 1990s
and the early 2000s).

Key Lessons

 Value of a “back to basics” brand revitalization strategy

 Challenge of negatively correlated attributes
 Great brands seize trends and opportunities
 Proper design and implementation of sub-brands
 Necessity of mixing and matching brand elements
 Value of blending well-designed “push” and “pull”
strategies
 Reality of awareness and image tradeoffs in advertising
 Importance of innovation and relevance

Discussion Questions

1. How would you characterize Levi’s branding strategy in general?

What are the positive aspects? Are there any negative aspects?

 Two brand names: Levi’s and Dockers

 Sub-brands
 Positive Aspects:
o Successful sub-branding strategy
o Capitalize on the strengths of the Levi’s brand
o Differentiates between Levi’s and Dockers
 Negative Aspects:
o Dockers image was not appealing to many
consumers
o New trends in the market do not support the
Dockers brand idea.

2. Analyze the Dockers' communication strategy at the time of the

launch. How did it fit in with past Levi's advertising efforts?
How did it contribute to brand equity?

 Communication strategy
o At time of launch, product focused
o Consistent with some Levi’s advertising from the
1980s
o Other Levi’s ads very image-oriented
o Dockers did not add an image element until later

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  Contribution to brand equity
o To build brand equity, both awareness and image are
needed
o Early ads drove awareness well, they were
memorable and conveyed information about the
product
o In-store shops “pushed” awareness
o Dockers added advertisements that indicated “who”
should be wearing its pants

3. How would you characterize the Dockers brand image? What

makes up its brand equity? Evaluate the move to expand the line
into the bedding, bath, and luggage markets.

 Brand image
o Casual dress brand, positioned in between jeans and
dress clothing
o At the time of its launch, the brand image tied
almost exclusively to the khakis popular with the
suburban set
o Dockers updated its communication strategy and its
design styles to convey a more sophisticated, urbane
image
 Brand equity
o High awareness
o High market penetration
o Strong channel support
o Positive image in numerous demographic segments

4. Describe some of the changes in the Dockers marketing

strategy from its debut. Has LS&Co. maintained a consistent
enough marketing message? Are they well-positioned
strategically and tactically to maintain their strong leadership
status in the coming years?

 Dockers altered advertising to convey a more

sophisticated image
 “Nice Pants” offered more edginess, more sexiness, less
stuffiness, younger target
 “One Leg at a Time” was a departure, confused consumers
 Returned to “Nice Pants,” better consistency
 Dockers is positioned well
o Leading brand of casual pants
o High awareness levels
o Many different lines, broad market coverage

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 o But, is Dockers reaching market saturation in U.S.?

5. Dockers missed out on the “wrinkle free” trend when it first

surfaced. Not incorporating this technology into pants hurt the
company. Years later, Dockers embraced technology in its
products, creating the Thermal Adapt Khaki and Perspiration
Guard shirt. Was adding this technology to their products the
right move, or did Dockers “go too far” in adding these features
to their clothes?

 Challenge of changing the image among young consumers

 Necessary to target this market
 Analysis is open to class discussions and arguments

6. Evaluate Dockers’ decision to stop selling products directly to

consumers on its website. Dockers’ main competitors (e.g., Gap,
J.Crew, and Abercrombie & Fitch) are heavily involved in online
retailing. Should Dockers reconsider their decision?

 Early e-commerce try was not successful

 Maybe a new approach would yield better results
 Analysis is open to class discussions and arguments

7. Imagine that you are John Goodman and have just been named
as the head of the Dockers brand. What are your priorities?
What do you do first?

 Conduct extensive marketing research to assess the image of Dockers

among different market segments.
 Analyze the possibilities of extending the brand, especially using sub-
brands in order to attract new customers, while keeping the brand relevant.

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Nivea: Managing a Multi-Category Brand
Teaching Notes

Summary

This case concerns the marketing program for Beiersdorf's flagship

Nivea brand. The case addresses the issue of how to manage the
brand image for a brand associated with different products. How can
Nivea continue to add new customers to their brand franchise without
harming their brand equity? Further, how can Nivea maintain its
brand equity in its core skin crème product while also leveraging that
equity into new product categories? A number of issues are raised
concerning the coordination of a branding and communication
program across existing and new products. Class discussion can
revolve around the following sets of questions that students should
consider before class:

1) What is the brand image and sources of equity for the Nivea
brand? Does it vary across product classes? How would you
characterize their brand hierarchy?
2) What are the pros and cons of the sub-brand strategy? Should
Nivea run a corporate brand or umbrella ad for all of their
products? What is the role of the Nivea Crème advertising?
Should it be changed?
3) Discuss the risks and benefits of Nivea’s brand extension into
new product categories and customers. How have Nivea’s
executives managed this extension? Have they missed
opportunities such as perfume or foot care? Are there certain
boundaries that Nivea should not cross?
4) Should Nivea pursue a Men’s grooming category? Does the
company risk alienating its core consumer base of families and
women or is this a natural next brand extension?
5) What would you do now? What recommendations would you
make to Nivea concerning next steps in their marketing
program?

Teaching Objectives

1) To examine issues in managing a brand hierarchy and brand

portfolio
2) To review possible roles of brands and communication
strategies for a brand hierarchy and brand portfolio
3) To consider how to best manage a mature brand over time
4) To analyze brand extension strategies for appropriateness

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 5) To demonstrate proper communication strategies with a brand
extension

Teaching Strategy

This case is the one with which students may be the least familiar.
Nevertheless, it can be an excellent means to examine brand
extensions and brand hierarchies. A good way to begin the case is to
ask students what the brand image is of Nivea crème, the flagship
product, in Europe, e.g., if you were to stop someone in the streets of
Paris, London, or Hamburg and asked what came to mind when they
thought of Nivea, what would they say? Nivea crème has a rich brand
image, so students typically are able to elicit a number of different
brand associations, such as:
- Care
- Protection
- Mildness/Gentleness
- Reliable/Trustworthy
- Natural/Pure/Basic/Simple/Honest
- Family/Shared Experiences/Maternal
- Multi-Purpose
- Classic/Heritage/Timeless
- Good Value/Quality
- Blue/White
A number of specific points can be made about the brand image. The
association of care and protection is an important one as it works at
both the product-level as well as a more symbolic, non-product level.
This duality is one that characterizes strong brands. Mildness and
gentleness associations are also critical as they represent a key point-
of-difference. Classic and heritage associations present an opportunity
and a threat. In terms of the latter, a worry is that the brand will not
be seen as contemporary and up-to-date, a point we will return to.
Finally, the blue and white associations are the foundation for brand
awareness and can be leveraged in that way.

After some discussion of the brand image of Nivea crème, analysis can
turn to the sub-brands and brand extensions. As is usually the case, it
helps to elicit the brand hierarchy and put it on the board. A few
preliminary comments can be made concerning the range and scope
of the Nivea brand (e.g., Which associations are most transferable?
Relevant? Unique?). It is necessary to individually analyze each major
sub-brand, starting with ones under skin care and moving to ones
under personal care. A good way to do this is to identify, one by one,
the points-of-parity and points-of-difference for each sub-brand.
Students may put together a list somewhat like the following:

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 POP POD
Crème All-Purpose Application Mildness/Gentleness

Body Texture/Application Mildness/Gentleness

Pleasurable usage experience

Soft Pleasurable usage/Texture Mildness/Gentleness/

Lighter crème

Visage Beauty Scientific &

Technology
With Confidence

Vital Beauty/Anti-aging Scientific/Gentleness

Baby Safety/Caring/Mildness Heritage

Sun Protection/Safety Mildness/Gentleness

Beach/Fun
For Men Sensual image/ Mildness/Gentleness
Soothing

Bath Care Convenience/ Mildness/Gentleness

Cleansing

Deodorant Efficacy Mildness/Gentleness

Beauté Beauty/Color
Mildness/Gentleness

Hair Care Cleansing/ Mildness/Gentleness

Appearance/Hold

There are a number of specific issues for each sub-brand that can be
considered in the process, time permitting. For example, Visage is a
very different type of sub-brand that deserves closer scrutiny. One
role it can play is to contribute to the perceptions of the Nivea brand
as a whole (e.g., as innovative, contemporary, etc.). Of course, the
transfer of associations is not one-way, so a legitimate question is the
effects of the Nivea parent brand on Visage. This topic can be used to
illustrate the flow of equity, which describes how sources of equity are
transferred between a parent brand and a sub-brand, and vice-versa.
Although Nivea presumably communicates credibility, quality, and
mildness, the transfer may not be all positive. For example, Nivea Deo
raises an interesting dilemma faced by many brands: how can a brand

149
be effective and therefore by implication, strong — and mild? The
challenge of negatively correlated attributes can be addressed in this
context. Another example: Nivea’s positioning as a mass-market,
family brand of skin care products complicated its extension into color
cosmetics, which is a more sophisticated and image-conscious
category.

After listing the positionings of the sub-brand, students can be told to

step back and critique their extension strategy. Has BDF management
done a good job extending the Nivea brand? Most students will admit
that the current brand portfolio is generally cohesive and well put
together. It is also worth considering whether Nivea’s leveraging of its
brand across an array of diverse brand extensions could have adverse
consequences for the image of the umbrella brand. Two important
points to emphasize about their sub-brands is that: 1) gentleness and
mildness are key points-of-difference in almost every category; and 2)
as Nivea moves farther away from their core crème brand, points-of-
parity become critical. It is worth noting that these two observations
characterize many brand extension strategies. These two observations
have important implications for the brand hierarchy as will be
developed further.

At this point, it makes sense to return back to the brand hierarchy to

get the “big picture.” For the sub-brands to be successful, with the
exception of Visage, they all need to create a POD on the basis of
mildness and gentleness. BDF management has four basic options to
do so:
1) Create mildness and gentleness associations to the Nivea
brand as a whole (perhaps reinforced through a family brand
ad) and assume they trickle down to the sub-brands
2) Create mildness and gentleness associations to the collection
of sub-brands through a product umbrella ad that showcased
all the various products and assume that each one would pick
up the associations
3) Create mildness and gentleness associations at the skin care
and/or personal care level through a family brand/product
umbrella ad at that level and assume they trickle down
4) Create mildness and gentleness associations at the Nivea
crème level and assume they go “up and over” to the sub-
brands

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Nivea chose the fourth option by implementing the Blue Harmony
campaign, which was essentially an image campaign for Nivea
Crème. This fourth option was the most cost-effective but, as
with the first option, it is not clear that a different type of ad will
be necessary. To make this point, the Blue Harmony ad
campaign should be analyzed. The campaign certainly
modernizes the brand and gives it a more contemporary look. A
number of key associations were not, however, being reinforced
initially, especially care, protection, mildness, gentleness. These
associations are only very implicitly dealt with as the ads are
more of a life style variety and lack product exposure. Later
Blue Harmony ads focused more on specific attributes of Nivea
Crème, while keeping the style of the ads consistent.
The discussion can conclude by asking the students what would they
do next – both short-term and long-term. The key for Nivea is to
reinforce equity in the corporate umbrella brand while at the
same time using it to support extensions. If the students
suggest, based on the analysis described above, changing the
ads, they should be asked how. There are many good things
about the ad that probably should be preserved. BDF’s solution
was to add phrases to capture key associations to the ad (e.g.,
“Care,” “Protection”) while essentially keeping the same visual
style. Although seemingly small and subtle, such changes may
help to provide the proper brand foundation on which the
extensions can build.
Longer-term, a key question becomes what new product categories
should Nivea enter and how. Students can be asked to generate
some candidate categories and asked to react to some actual
categories in which Nivea entered. Students can also discuss
the challenges of the entering the U.S. market. One useful point
to consider is whether BDF should attempt to leverage their
European (although not necessarily German) heritage in
marketing Nivea (e.g., “the European skin care leader”). They
have not done so – is that wise?

Key Lessons

 Strong brands have rich, cohesive brand images and well-

entrenched brand values
 An effective brand hierarchy creates relevance, differentiation
and the proper awareness and image at each level
 Properly extending a brand can broaden its meaning & scope

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 Creating a strong family or “power” brand involves choosing
categories that “fit” and developing consistent, well-positioned
marketing programs
 Sub-brands can create unique identities and enhance the image
of the parent brand
 The role of flagship brands must be carefully managed to
balance deposits and withdrawals

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Discussion Questions

1) What is the brand image and sources of equity for the Nivea
brand? Does it vary across product classes? How would you
evaluate or rate Nivea’s brand extension strategy? How would
you characterize the brand hierarchy?

 Brand Image/Equity
o Family
o Caring
o Gentleness/Mildness
o Protection
o Simple
o Multipurpose
o Reliable
 Variation Across Product Classes
o In Visage, Vital, and Beauté, image is less simple
and more scientific,
less multipurpose, and more individual than family
o In every product category, core attributes of
mildness/gentleness,
caring, protection, and reliability hold
 Brand Extension Strategy
o Leverage corporate umbrella brand on every new
product
o Use familiar logo and look for new brands
o Extend into related categories
 Brand Hierarchy

NIVEA
Skin Care Personal Care
Nivea Crème Nivea Deo
Nivea Soft Nivea Beauté
Nivea Visage Nivea Bath Care
Nivea Vital Nivea Hair Care
Nivea Body Nivea Intimate Care
Nivea for Men
Nivea Sun
Nivea Baby
Nivea Hand
Nivea Lip

2) What are the pros and cons of the sub-brand strategy? Should
Nivea run a corporate brand or umbrella ad for all of their

153
 products? What is the role of the Nivea Crème advertising?
Should it be changed?

 Pros:
o Helps elicit the brand hierarchy
o Strengthens the Nivea brand
o Utilizes the existing awareness and associations of
the brand
 Cons:
o Risk of transferring irrelevant or negative
associations
o Risk of negatively affecting the original brand
 It is possible to run brand campaign as long as the ads
emphasize common image and associations
 Nivea Crème is the “flagship” brand that carries the
brand’s awareness and image as well as the “All Purpose”
association.
 Nivea Crème ads should emphasize the brand’s image and
they should be general enough to allow for extensions
with additional associations.

3) Discuss the risks and benefits of Nivea’s brand extension into

new product categories and customers. How have Nivea’s
executives managed this extension? Have they missed
opportunities such as perfume or foot care? Are there certain
boundaries that Nivea should not cross?

 Risks
o Can the brand image extend to all these products
positively?
o Can these extensions dilute the Nivea brand?
 Benefits
o Use Nivea’s awareness and equity
o Save time, effort and money
 Management of Extensions
o Evaluation is open for class discussions and
arguments
 Opportunities in Perfume and Foot Care
o Each idea needs to be further researched
o Evaluation is open for class discussions and
arguments
 Boundaries
o Evaluation is open for class discussions and
arguments

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4) Should Nivea pursue a Men’s grooming category? Does the
company risk alienating its core consumer base of families and
women or is this a natural next brand extension?

 If the associations transferred are consistent with the

brand’s image and positioning, then an extension to the
Men’s growing category is possible.
 Marketing research is required to analyze the effect of this initiative on the
current consumer markets.

5) What would you do now? Provide recommendations to Nivea

concerning next steps in their marketing program?

 Analyze the brand portfolio carefully to decide on which

sub-brands to keep and which ones to divest.
 Consider different countries where the brand could be
introduced.
 The question is whether to enter these international
markets with a full portfolio of products & brands or to
apply a gradual entry approach.

155
Yahoo!: Managing an Online Brand
Teaching Notes

Summary

The Yahoo! case details the rise of one of the Internet economy’s most
visible brands. The case focuses on managing an Internet brand,
which entails numerous topics such as Internet advertising, branding
a technology product, and managing a brand in a highly competitive
category. Yahoo! was the poster-child and bellwether of the Internet
economy during the second half of the 1990s, and managed to remain
independent as many search engine and portal competitors were
purchased by media companies. The company encountered obstacles,
however, as the economy worsened in the early 2000s. After
management changes and strategic business restructuring, Yahoo!
looked to capitalize on its position as a leading Internet brand moving
forward. Yahoo! deployed a strategy for growth based on new
services, acquisitions, and partnerships to face fierce competition.
Students can consider the following questions before class:
1) Describe the sources of equity for the Yahoo! brand. Did
these sources change during Yahoo!’s history? If so, how?
2) How did Yahoo!’s marketing program contribute to the
company’s success? What changes, if any, would you
recommend for the future?
3) Evaluate Yahoo!’s strategy of selling services. What impact,
if any, will it have on consumers’ perceptions of the brand?
How can Yahoo! get more people to pay for more of its
services?
4) Should Yahoo! work more on growing its international
presence, or should it focus on strengthening its domestic
position?
5) What do you think is the biggest risk to Yahoo! at the time
of the case? What should the company do about it?

Teaching Objectives

1) To examine the selection of brand elements and creation of

a marketing program
2) To analyze the decisions and factors involved in starting an
Internet brand
3) To observe the branding issues facing technology
companies
4) To review new marketing techniques, particularly Internet
advertising

156
 5) To analyze the process of developing new products and new
markets
6) To examine the issues of global branding

Teaching Strategy

Yahoo! should be a very familiar brand to everyone in the class, and

most students should have first-hand experience with the brand.
Students should certainly be encouraged, as with most cases, to go
on-line and check out the brand before the class session to increase
their familiarity if need be. With this level of familiarity, it should be
easy to construct a mental map of the Yahoo! brand at the beginning
of class and use this to launch class discussion. An obvious place to
start its with the origins of the brand, which can be used to illustrate
selecting brand elements and devising marketing strategy. In vintage
dot-com style, Yahoo! was conceived by graduate students and started
from a trailer. These roots informed the fun and user-friendly image
that lay at the core of the brand. The name Yahoo! is an acronym
standing for “Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle,” which is a
tongue-in-cheek definition of the search engine in technology jargon.
The name was meant to convey the fun and excitement of using the
Internet, without any complicated technological associations that
would dissuade the casual consumer.

Yahoo!’s advertising was also designed to make technology novices,

termed “near surfers” because they considered getting on the
Internet but hadn’t yet, feel comfortable using the brand. By Yahoo!’s
way of thinking, these near surfers were more loyal and comprised a
large segment of the population. Yahoo!’s advertising can be analyzed
by students for its brand equity building. Yahoo! had the advantage of
being one of the first Internet companies to use mainstream media
buys, which further contributed to awareness and image. Yahoo! also
developed the “Yahoo! yodel,” the signature audio cue designed to
reinforce awareness of the brand and add to its image of fun and
excitement. The “Do you Yahoo!?” slogan was used consistently, which
the company felt helped it stand out from competition that was
changing their names, taglines, and positionings.

Another topic for discussion is the Yahoo! business model, which was
initially built almost exclusively on revenue from selling advertising
space on its site. The percentage of visitors to an ad-sponsored site
who clicked on the advertisement to follow its link was called the
“click-through rate.” When Internet advertising first emerged, click-
through rates were above 20 percent, but rapidly fell to two or three
percent in 1996. Currently, click-through rates are less than one

157
percent. Students can be asked about their Web surfing habits and the
frequency with which they click on ads to illustrate this point. The
discussion of Internet advertising can include ideas from Chapter 5 on
new marketing techniques. Once click-through rates bottomed out in
the early 2000s, the business model using online advertising as the
primary source of revenue came into question. Yahoo! had been
expanding its business in product, market, and geographic terms
since it was launched, but the need for further expansion and less
reliance on advertising revenue was imperative. Therefore, the next
area to consider is Yahoo!’s brand expansion.

Yahoo!’s product expansion is a good place to start, because many

students will be familiar with the brand’s numerous brand extensions.
Early on, Yahoo! management noticed that Web surfers typically used
Yahoo! to conduct an Internet search and then left the site to visit the
non-proprietary sites generated by the search. In order to keep
“eyeballs” glued to Yahoo! sites for longer, the company added
homegrown content and vastly expanded onsite offerings, such as
Yahoo! Finance, Yahoo! Travel, or the Yahoo!ligans kids’ directory.
These sites attracted new users and kept them on Yahoo! pages. For
all its brand extensions, Yahoo! used a sub-branding strategy.
Students can compare the benefits of this strategy vs. other types of
brand extension strategies from Chapter 12. Yahoo! also made a
number of acquisitions, including free e-mail provider Four11 Corp.,
which became Yahoo! Mail, and Broadcast.com, which enabled Yahoo!
to provide streaming media content. Students can weigh the merits of
Yahoo!’s acquisition strategy, in terms of its product expansion
strategy and in terms of valuation methodology from Chapter 10. It
might be interesting to have students describe their experience with
the brand, to see who uses Yahoo! for a search engine, for a
entertainment and streaming-media source, for an information and
news source, for a shopping and e-commerce site, and for any of its
other numerous product and service offerings. Yahoo! licensing is
another product development topic that student may be interested in
discussing. This topic can be tied into ideas from Chapter 7.

Yahoo!’s product expansion strategy paralleled its market expansion

strategy, which can be discussed next. From the start, the brand
expanded rapidly into new geographical segments. Yahoo! Europe and
Yahoo!’s first Asian site – Yahoo! Japan – were developed in 1996.
Over the next five years, Yahoo! added more country and regional
sites in many languages. Yahoo! was the leading portal in many of the
countries in which it established a site, including Japan, Great Britain,
and was in the top three in every market it entered. It had established
a global brand in a short five years. Students can discuss the
advantages and drawbacks of global branding, as detailed in Chapter

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14. The fact that it was an Internet company was central to Yahoo!’s
development of a global brand, because the medium was itself a
global network. The fact that Yahoo! surpassed local competition in
many markets and always led big players like AOL and MSN indicates
that Yahoo!’s marketing program was better designed for global
marketing. Students can discuss how the company’s brand elements,
its advertising, its grassroots strategy, and its early geographic
expansion all contributed to this effect.

As the Internet economy foundered, however, Yahoo!’s expansion

grew more aggressive, particularly in the product dimension. In 2000,
90 percent of Yahoo!’s revenues came from advertising. This figure
was reduced to 80 percent in 2001, but advertising revenues
decreased by almost 40 percent that year. Yahoo! sought to achieve a
50-50 split between ad revenues and revenues from other sources by
2004. Yahoo!’s big initiative was expanding its corporate services by
establishing offerings such as Yahoo! Portal Solutions, which
specialized in building website portals for corporations such as
McDonald’s, Pfizer, and the state of North Carolina; Yahoo! Enterprise
Solutions (YES), which offered a customized version of the Yahoo!
portal for corporate clients; and on-line conference hosting. In
another move to boost revenues from non-advertising sources, Yahoo!
began charging for services that had traditionally been free, such as
e-mail forwarding, responding to personal ads, and Web phone
applications. Yahoo! also raised commission rates for sellers on its
auction site. Students can discuss the potential affects on brand
equity of these moves. For example, most mass-market consumers
would not know about Yahoo!’s corporate offerings and their
perception of the company might not be affected. Mass-market
consumers might balk, however, at being asked to pay for
traditionally-free services. Corporate clients, on the other hand, would
be familiar with Yahoo!’s mass-market appeal and might not perceive
the company as a powerful corporate solutions provider.

The discussion can end by soliciting thoughts on Yahoo!’s future

strategy. Some industry analysts foresaw a future merger with or
acquisition by a large media company. Others recommended that
Yahoo! start charging its users a fee for all services. These options can
be analyzed for their viability and their consequences for Yahoo!’s
brand equity. Students may also have different ideas for Yahoo! It
should be emphasized that Yahoo! was one of the most recognized and
oft-used Internet brands, and possessed a great deal of equity that
could be leveraged as the brand sought new sources of revenue.

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Key Lessons

 Yahoo! achieved success in the highly competitive Internet

portal market with the help of an innovative product and the
implementation of branding strategies
 Yahoo! built awareness and image with a creative and
integrated marketing program
 Over-reliance on the Internet advertising model adversely
affected the company’s financial fortunes
 Diversification and brand extensions were and are critical
to Yahoo!’s past and future success
 Yahoo! has accumulated significant brand equity in its
category, must find new ways to capitalize on it

Discussion Questions

1) Describe the sources of equity for the Yahoo! brand. Did these
sources change during Yahoo!’s history? If so, how?

 Sources of equity
o High awareness
o Positive image associations: fun, excitement, ease-of-
use, powerful, global
o Credibility
o Customizable, “for me”
o Interactive
 Changes over time
o Became more interactive with added media content,
chat groups, instant
messaging, mobile capabilities
o Became more customizable with My Yahoo!
o More global over time
o Added many more corporate services
o Retained fun, excitement, ease-of-use

2) How did Yahoo!’s marketing program contribute to the

company’s success? What changes, if any, would you
recommend for the future?
-
 Used an innovative and easy-to-use product as foundation
for marketing activity
 Built awareness and image at an early stage, before many
competitors were advertising

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  Quirky advertising reinforced key product benefits and
image associations
 Cross-promotion, licensing, grassroots activity reinforced
key values of fun, excitement, user-friendly, etc. in unique
ways
 Brand extensions enabled growth

3) Evaluate Yahoo!’s strategy of selling services. What impact, if

any, will it have on consumers’ perceptions of the brand? How
can Yahoo! get more people to pay for more of its services?

 Less reliance on advertising as a source of revenue.

Therefore, this approach is appropriate and less risky in
the long-term.
 Consumer perceptions should be positive as a result of
this approach because the brand offers a variety of
valuable services and contents.
 Students are encouraged to discuss their experiences with
the brand and the whether the services offered are wroth
paying for.

4) Should Yahoo! work more on growing its international presence,

or should it focus on strengthening its domestic position?

 How to balance the focus on both?

 Open for class discussions and arguments on:
o Coverage should be relevant to all cultures and
markets
o Coverage should be thorough to appeal to local
tastes

5) What do you think is the biggest risk to Yahoo! at the time of the
case? What should the company do about it?

 Competition and market developments are the major risks

facing the brand
 Revenues are unpredicted with technological
developments and quick changes in market dynamics and
requirements
 Possible Solutions:
o Acquire a media company to expand and further
grow & diversify
o Search for new sources of revenue

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American Express: Managing a Financial Services Brand
Teaching Note

Summary

American Express (AMEX) is one of the most recognized and most

respected brands in the world. The case concentrates on three
periods in the life of the AMEX brand: its early history up through the
brand’s emergence in the 1980s as the largest financial services
company in the United States; the company’s business struggles in
the early 1990s; and the subsequent moves that attempted to return
the brand back to prominence. As an enduring financial services
brand, AMEX underwent many changes throughout its 152-year
history. The company’s ability to adapt to market conditions and
competitors’ actions enabled it to remain one the world’s leading
corporations, but a number of issues remain unresolved. As with
Silicon Graphics, the AMEX could make for an excellent exam case or
the basis of class discussion. Regardless, students should consider
the following questions in analyzing the case:

1) What elements and characteristics comprised the equity in

the American Express brand in the 1960s? In the 1980s?
How would you currently characterize the American Express
brand?
2) Evaluate American Express in terms of its competitors. How
well is it positioned? What are its points-of-parity and points-
of-difference in its different business areas? How has it
changed over time? In what segments of its business does
American Express face the most competition?
3) Evaluate American Express’ integration of its various
businesses. What recommendations would you make in order
to maximize the contribution to equity of all of its businesses’
units? At the same time, is the corporate brand sufficiently
coherent?
4) Was it worth the time and effort to make the “webisode” with
Jerry Seinfeld? The short film by Ellen DeGeneres? What are
the advantages and disadvantages of using the Internet to
advertise a service-related company?
5) Of the advertising campaigns described in the case, which
would you say was the most effective? Why?
6) What is more important for American Express—expand its
product line of new cards (such as the IN:NYC card), or focus
on offering new services to its cardholders (such as offering
statements in Braille or making its travel website easier to
use)?

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Teaching Objectives

1) To understand issues with services branding

2) To address evolutions in positioning and its dynamic nature
3) To analyze the development of marketing communications
strategies
4) To examine the concepts of brand portfolio and brand
hierarchy
5) To review strategies for dealing with competition

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Teaching Strategy

The areas of discussion that can be derived from this case are many,
including topics such as building brand equity, managing brand equity,
and revitalizing a brand. Students will be familiar with the brand, but
they may not know its history. A brief review from the first part of the
case will help students understand how the brand was built and what
management decisions contributed to the company’s early success.
As with many cases, students can apply the CBBE model in terms of
the three major ways to build brand equity and the resulting CBBE
pyramid that was being constructed strategically. Clearly, AMEX went
up the right-hand-side of the pyramid to a greater extent than many
brands in terms of creating a brand with strong user imagery and
personality and that evoked many feelings of social approval, self
respect, etc. It is also worth noting how they did that in part by
leveraging secondary associations in terms of celebrities, which
permits a discussion of when celebrities are, or are not, useful.
Chapter 7 has much useful information in that regard.

Turning to the second main period – the decline of AMEX – an obvious

start point is their failure to achieve the two keys to keeping a brand
strong – innovation and relevance. They failed to develop new
products that met changing consumer needs and they failed to
recognize that the brand’s key promise of prestige was no longer as
relevant in the 90’s as it had been in the 80’s. The Chiat/Day ad
campaign with the card as an icon was horribly mis-timed in that
regard. Compounding problems was the simultaneous launch of
Visa’s brilliant ad campaign “Visa. It”s Everywhere You Want to Be.”
That campaign highlighted desirable locations, resorts, events,
restaurants, etc. – none of which would take American Express. It
was able to simultaneously create a point-of-parity (in terms of cachet
by showing aspirational travel destinations and promoting their own
gold and platinum cards) and a point-of-difference (in terms of
convenience). AMEX lacked focus and was not strongly positioned
competitively…and paid the price. A number of the concepts from
Chapter 13 are relevant here in terms of brand reinforcement and
maintaining a leadership position.

The third main period deals with AMEX’s attempts to regain their lost
share and revitalize the brand. One focus can be on the “Do More”
campaign and the repositioning of the brand in certain markets. For
example, it could be argued that with cards the challenge will be to
achieve a point-of-parity broadly on performance and to re-assert a
point-of-difference on imagery. Stressing the value associated with
the card in terms of all the special features can be seen as a means of
creating a point-of-parity here. Some of the material in Chapter 13

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can be brought into the discussion. Another key issue in this third
period is the scope of the corporate brand and how well the different
parts fit together. AMEX clearly faces a challenge at establishing
itself as a financial services brand and not just a traveler’s cheque and
a card company. Concepts from Chapter 11 can be reviewed here in
terms of the brand architecture and strategies to create a strong
corporate brand.

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Key Lessons

 Brand imagery can be a powerful driver of brand equity.

 Successful brand leadership requires constant innovation and
relevance throughout the marketing program
 Proper positioning requires creating appropriate points-of-
parity and points-of-difference.
 Brand revitalization often involves a combination of “back to
basics” and renewal.
 Corporate branding involves establishing the right corporate
image and brand architecture.

Discussion Questions

1) What elements and characteristics comprised the equity in the

American Express brand in the 1960s? In the 1980s? How
would you currently characterize the American Express
brand?

 Equity in 1960s
o Travel and entertainment leader
o High level of prestige
o Associated with leisure
o Favored by corporations for expense accounts
o Offered security, peace of mind
 Equity in the 1980s
o Travel and entertainment leadership eroded by
other cards with greater acceptability
o Prestige enhanced by gold and platinum cards
o Broad financial offerings contributed to “corporate
empire” image, positive associations resulted, but
some distraction from core competencies
o Security, peace of mind remained
 Equity in 2002
o Fierce competition complicated the card market
considerably, AMEX prestige no longer as important
o Corporate empire no longer intact, limited financial
services not as vital a part of the company’s vision
o Security remained with Travelers Cheques and Blue
card

2) Evaluate American Express in terms of its competitors. How

well is it positioned? What are its points-of-parity and points-
of-difference in its different business areas? How have they

166
 changed over time? In what segments of its business does it
face the most competition?

 Card competition especially strong, Visa and MasterCard

gained market share from 1970s onward.
 AMEX point-of-difference of prestige not perceived by
consumers as important and partly negated by Visa’s
brilliant campaign. Developed innovative new products
such as Blue to create new points-of-difference
 Faces entrenched competition in financial services market
 Its offerings, such as banking and insurance, give it the
potential to compete
 A leader for travel services
 Faces Internet travel competition, which offer convenience
and price comparisons
3) Evaluate American Express’ integration of its various
businesses. What recommendations would you make in order
to maximize the contribution to equity of all its businesses
units? At the same time, is the corporate brand sufficiently
coherent?

 AMEX’s strong corporate identity could apply across

diverse categories and markets
 Different campaigns for different cards not as integrated
 Addition of select financial services possibly problematic,
as in the 1980s
 Must balance a variety of attributes, some negatively
correlated such as prestige and acceptability

4) Was it worth the time and effort to make the “webisode” with
Jerry Seinfeld? The short film by Ellen DeGeneres? What are
the advantages and disadvantages of using the Internet to
advertise a service-related company?

 Evaluation is open for class discussions and arguments

 Advantages of Internet Advertising
o Offers interactive tools with customers
o Relatively cheaper
o More contemporary and appealing
o Yielded positive results in 2003 & 2004
 Disadvantages of Internet Advertising
o New and unconventional to many customers

5) Of the advertising campaigns described in the case, which

would you say was the most effective? Why?

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  All advertising campaigns have been effective at their
times
 The “Don’t Leave Without It” campaign in the 1970s built
the image of prestige and status
 The “Interesting Livers” campaign attempted to target
new segments, but was not successful in changing the
“premium” image of the brand.
 The “Cause Marketing” campaigns have been useful to
build brand credibility.
 The “Helps You Do More” campaign attempted to bridge
historic strengths with newer initiatives
 The “My Life. My Card” campaign kept the momentum of
the brand and the link with celebrities along with
successful internet marketing.

6) What is more important for American Express—expand its

product line of new cards (such as the IN:NYC card), or focus
on offering new services to its cardholders (such as offering
statements in Braille or making its travel website easier to
use)?

 Both services and products need to be pursued, following

the new trends in the different markets
 Services help maintain current customers and sustain the
image of the brand
 Introducing new products helps attract new customers
and market segments
 Marketing research is crucial to depict new trends in a
changing global environment.

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Starbucks: Managing a High Growth Brand
Teaching Notes

Summary

The Starbucks case details the rise of the brand from a local gourmet
West Coast coffee beanery to global retail giant. The remarkable
growth of the brand was accomplished primarily because the product
and the service were exceptional enough to warrant significant word-
of-mouth response from consumers. As Starbucks grew, the company
pursued expansion in the market and product dimensions. New
international markets sprang up in Europe, Asia, Latin America, the
Middle East, and Australia, while Starbucks moved into airports,
grocery stores and convenience stores. Brand extensions from
Starbucks included ice cream and iced coffee, and the company
purchased a brand of premium tea. The challenge facing Starbucks
after more than a decade of rapid growth was, of course, how to
maintain the growth without alienating the customers that helped the
company achieve it. Class discussion can consider the following
questions:

1) What were the keys for success for Starbucks in building the
brand? What were its brand values? What were their sources
of equity?
2) How would you evaluate Starbucks' growth strategy? Are
there things you would do differently? How would you
evaluate its partnerships (e.g., with United Airlines)? How do
you know whether it is a “good” or “bad” partnership?
3) What does it take to make a world class global brand? Can
Starbucks become one? What hurdles must it overcome? In
terms of the American market, what do you see as Starbucks’
biggest challenges?
4) Evaluate Starbucks’ move into non-coffee areas like credit
cards, music, and film. Are these natural extensions of the
Starbucks brand, or has the company gone too far in creating
a “lifestyle” brand? Where should Starbucks go next?
5) Do you agree with Starbucks’ international expansion? Should
the company continue its aggressive expansion plans? Are
there markets where Starbucks cannot expand?
6) Who represents the biggest threat to Starbucks? Direct
competitors in the coffee market, such as Dunkin’ Donuts?
Chains like McDonald’s that are expanding their coffee
quality? Panera Bread and other locations that might be the
new “third place”?
7) How much are customers willing to pay for the Starbucks
Experience? Can the company continue to raise prices on its

169
 coffees and drinks? Is there a market for $400+ coffee
makers?

Teaching Objectives

1) To review the marketing imperative of designing brand-

building, customer-oriented marketing programs
2) To analyze the process of building brand equity and review
the CBBE pyramid
3) To consider brand expansion strategies
4) To analyze how to preserve brand equity as the brand
grows
Teaching Strategy

The Starbucks case can easily support a class session on a variety of

branding topics. The case will work well early in the term as an
introduction to branding issues (e.g., second class) or later in the term
as a summary and review of branding concepts. Articles from the
popular press can be handed out ahead of time to provide additional
background. If interested, reading Howard Schultz’ Pour Your Heart
Into It provides much useful background for class and is an easy read.

This is a good case to preview or review key concepts in building and

managing brand equity. Students can be asked to apply the customer-
based brand equity framework to identify sources of brand equity and
the means by which those sources were created and the challenges in
managing the brand over time. In doing so, a number of issues can be
touched upon. A natural way to kick things off would be to ask
students their associations for the brand and have them attempt to
construct a mental map for Starbucks. Most likely virtually all the
students will have tried or at least know something about Starbucks
coffee. Some of the main perceived positive and negatives about the
brand will undoubtedly emerge. Positive associations will likely
include quality, relaxing, break, sophisticated, convenient, and
innovative. Negative associations might include fast food, predatory,
pretentious, expensive, and predictable.

To uncover how these associations came about, it will be useful to

review the historical development of the brand in terms of building
brand equity. The initial selection of brand elements is a starting
point, and the Starbucks name, logo, and color scheme are all key
elements to review. The name, derived from a character in the classic
Moby Dick, was intended to convey a mystique and magic while also
expressing the product’s American heritage. The woodcut logo of a
siren was designed to be seductive and exotic, while also welcoming

170
and pleasant. The green of its logo and store interior was meant to
convey Italian elegance. Each element can be evaluated for its
contribution to brand equity.

Next, the discussion can turn to the design of a customer-oriented

marketing program. The customers’ experience with the brand was
the cornerstone of the Starbucks marketing program. Every aspect of
the Starbucks retail experience was designed to provide the customer
the romantic feel of stopping at a European espresso bar. From the
premium coffee and the trained “baristas” (servers) to the well-
appointed interiors and the hip music, Starbucks sought to become a
“third place” where customers could take a break from both their
homes and workplaces. Students can be asked to describe each
component of the experience, as elaborated in the following two
paragraphs. The product vs. retail nature of the brand should be
spelled out by considering the duality of Starbucks selling coffee and
the coffeehouse experience. The latter aspect of the Starbucks brand
can be used to start a discussion of experiential marketing, as
outlined in Chapter 5.

Starbucks selection of what product to sell was the most important

part of the experience. Only premium coffee would spark the
passionate consumer response that drove Starbucks’ awareness in the
early stages of its growth. Starbucks maintained control over the
coffee from procurement to roasting to retail, ensuring that the
customer was getting the highest quality product available. Initially,
the company also did not employ a franchise strategy. It owned and/or
leased all Starbucks locations, choosing only the “high visibility” and
“high traffic” locations that were likely to generate the most business
and awareness. Starbucks’ hub strategy, wherein it clustered stores
around a selected urban or suburban region, could also be analyzed.

Starbucks’ relations with employees is another important aspect of its

marketing strategy. Each barista is given 24 hours of training at the
time of hire, and all employees are eligible for health coverage and
“Bean Stock” – company-issued stock options. As a result, turnover
among Starbucks employees was lower than for most food chains, and
the customer experience was enhanced by the employees’ ability to
educate the consumer about the coffee products. The elements of the
rich sensory experience at a Starbucks retail location can be
reviewed, covering each of the five senses.

After a discussion of the Starbucks marketing program, the discussion

can turn to detailing the brand’s mental map and core brand values
and evaluating the points-of-parity and points-of-difference that

171
enabled the brand to stand out from the competition. They are
summarized in the following table:

Starbucks Positioning

Competitor POP POD

Fast food chains/ —Convenience —Quality
   convenience shops —Value —Image
—Experience
—Variety
Supermarket brands —Convenience —Quality
(for home) —Value —Image
—Experience
—Variety
—Freshness
Local cafe —Quality —Convenience
—Experience
—Price
—Community

Class discussion can next touch on Starbucks’ communication

strategy. Starbucks used little in the way of traditional electronic
media communications to build its brand, relying instead on word-of-
mouth and brand visibility to drive awareness. This “grassroots”
approach allowed for a high degree of integration and enabled
Starbucks to develop consumer respect for and attachment to the
brand even as it expanded rapidly. This part of the discussion can be
tied into Chapter 6 on integrated marketing communication.

As Starbucks grew, it expanded into multiple distribution channels in

order to reach more consumers. These included mail order, an e-
commerce Website, and a variety of retail franchise partnerships.
Partners included Host Marriot, United Airlines, Nordstrom, and
Barnes & Noble. Here, class discussion could touch on channel
strategy, as outlined in Chapter 5. These new channel developments
can be contrasted with Starbucks’ previous strategy of maintaining
exclusive control over the distribution and sale of its product. The
pros (leverage secondary associations of partner, greater market
coverage and penetration, lower cost) and cons (sacrifice some
control over brand, possibility of negative associations stemming from
partner) of channel partnerships can be discussed.

172
Starbucks licensing of its name to expand its brand in the product
dimension can also be reviewed. Its development of the Frappucino
blended iced coffee beverage with PepsiCo was a very successful
brand extension. So too was its coffee ice cream extension with
Dreyer’s. Starbucks also licensed its name in a joint venture with
Kraft to bring packaged ground coffee to grocery stores. Class
discussion can evaluate Starbucks’ licensing strategy and its
leveraging of secondary associations as part of its product expansion,
using ideas from Chapter 7 as a guide. For example, students can
discuss whether the licensed products fit with the Starbucks image
and how they contribute to brand equity. Here it might be useful to
have students define the Starbucks brand hierarchy and brand
portfolio, so that the recent product development can be thoroughly
analyzed.

Finally, the class can cover the challenges faced by Starbucks as a

brand leader in its category. These include overexposure – which is
partially a result of a clustering strategy that in some cases leads to
two Starbucks locations opening across the street from one another –
and subsequent consumer backlash. Starbucks also faces greater
competition, both domestically and abroad. The task of remaining
ahead of the competition and retaining the loyalty of its valued
customers is one of Starbucks’ biggest challenges.

Key Lessons

 Starbucks grew the brand through aggressive:

o Product Development
 Brand Extensions: Key issue: Perceived Fit
 Product Acquisitions: Key issue:
Complementarity
o Market Development
 New Channels & Outlets: Key Issue: Relative
Strength of Images & Consumer Ability to
Compartmentalize
 New Geographies: Key Issue: Transferability &
Relevance of Brand Values & POD
 Starbucks faces typical brand leader challenges
o More focused competition
o Consumer backlash
 Some possible advice:
o Beware of over-expansion & over-exposure
o Don’t lose sight of flagship products

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 o Develop stronger communications
Discussion Questions

1) What were the keys for success for Starbucks in building the
brand? What were its brand values? What were their sources
of equity?

 Keys for Success

o Product of highest quality, coffee evoked passion
from consumers
o Café strategy made customer experience enjoyable
o Emphasis on branding from the start
o Numerous PODs from retail/grocery
 Brand Values
o Honesty
o Authentic experience
o Commitment to brand
o Customer-focused
 Sources of Equity
o Bringing European-style coffee experience to
Americans, then the world
o Quality in every aspect point of contact with
consumers
o Employee/customer satisfaction
o Broad reach/convenience

2) How would you evaluate Starbucks' growth strategy? Are there

things you would do differently? How would you evaluate its
partnerships (e.g., with United Airlines)? How do you know
whether it is a “good” or “bad” partnership?

 Evaluate Growth
o Market growth, look at measures such as market
share and same-store sales
o Product growth, evaluate each extension for
contribution to equity
 Evaluate Partnerships
o List secondary associations, evaluate for
benefits/drawbacks to determine contribution to
equity
o If equity is enhanced, “good”
o If equity diminished, “bad”

3) What does it take to make a world class global brand? Can

Starbucks become one? What hurdles must they overcome? In

174
 terms of the American market, what do you see as Starbucks’
biggest challenges?

 World-Class Brand
o Positive image across geographical boundaries
o Consistency across geographical boundaries

o Market leadership in a number of global markets

o Strong organizational structure
o Mix global strategy with local relevancy
 Hurdles
o Local tastes
o Image as multinational/outsider
o Entrenched or emerging competition
o Finding appropriate licensing/partnership
opportunities
 Challenges in America
o Competition
o Image as multinational
o Over-exposure
o Maintaining relevance over time

4) Evaluate Starbucks’ move into non-coffee areas like credit

cards, music, and film. Are these natural extensions of the
Starbucks brand, or has the company gone too far in creating
a “lifestyle” brand? Where should Starbucks go next?

 Evaluation is open for class discussions and arguments

 Is the brand capable of withstanding these extensions?

5) Do you agree with Starbucks’ international expansion? Should

the company continue its aggressive expansion plans? Are
there markets where Starbucks cannot expand?

 International expansion is crucial to further growing the

brand.
 International locations should be carefully selected
though.
 Possibly there might be countries that would not accept
the Starbucks model because of cultural differences or
buying power or lifestyles.
 Students are encouraged to provide examples of countries
where Starbucks might struggle.

175
 6) Who represents the biggest threat to Starbucks? Direct
competitors in the coffee market, such as Dunkin’ Donuts?
Chains like McDonald’s that are expanding their coffee
quality? Panera Bread and other locations that might be the
new “third place”?

 Each competitor might be dangerous in different

countries.
 Starbucks should emphasize its superiority over all
competitors through:
o The quality of coffee over direct competitors
o The Starbucks experience over indirect competitors
o Customer service and the quality of employees
o The additional products that provide excitement to
customers
o The intensive distribution and availability.

7) How much are customers willing to pay for the Starbucks

Experience? Can the company continue to raise prices on its
coffees and drinks? Is there a market for $400+ coffee
makers?

 Marketing research in different countries is required to

assess the optimal price beyond which consumers will not
value the Starbucks experience.
Snapple - Revitalizing a Brand
Teaching Notes

Summary

The Snapple case is essentially a “three act play,” the first detailing
the rise of the brand from humble origins to national prominence. The
second deals with Quaker Oats’ mismanagement of the brand, while
the third reviews Snapple’s revitalization in the hands of Triarc
Beverage Group. To turn Snapple around, Triarc employed a back-to-
basics approach that sought to capitalize on the core characteristics
that had made the brand successful in the first place. Once Snapple
had achieved renewed success, Triarc sold the brand to Cadbury
Schweppes in 2000. Questions for students to consider before class
are as follows:
2) How would you characterize Snapple's brand image and
sources of brand equity? What are the strengths and
weaknesses of the brand's existing personality and image?

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 3) Where did Quaker go wrong? What could they or should
they have done differently? Is Cadbury in danger of making
the same mistakes as Quaker did?
4) How effective and appropriate do you think Triarc’s
marketing program was? What changes, if any, would you
recommend Cadbury make to Snapple marketing?
5) How has Snapple’s sale to Cadbury affected Snapple’s
equity? Are there dangers of the brand’s association with a
large corporation?
6) What do you think Cadbury’s next moves with Snapple
should be? Should the company attempt to expand or
reposition Snapple? Should Cadbury spin-off its Americas
Beverages group?

Teaching Objectives

1) To review the marketing imperative of choosing brand

elements
2) To analyze the development of a communication strategy
3) To examine common branding mistakes
4) To review strategies for rebuilding a brand

Teaching Strategy

The Snapple case lends itself to a multi-part discussion because of the

three stages of the brand’s development. Discussion can start with the
building of the brand, next observe some of the pitfalls of branding as
illustrated by the Quaker Oats segment of the case, and finally
examine the revitalization of the brand with Triarc Beverage Group.
Students will likely be familiar with the brand, but might not be
familiar with its ownership history or its ups and downs. It might be
useful to establish a timeline and chart the growth of the brand at the
beginning as a guide for discussion.

The first stage of the Snapple brand began in the 1970s and lasted
through the early 1990s. To make it easy for students to get involved
in discussion, it might be useful to start by enumerating the elements
that comprise the Snapple brand. In terms of the framework for
building brand equity, each brand element should be evaluated for its
contribution to image and awareness based on the six criteria from
Chapter 4. First, the Snapple name should be considered. Snapple
itself is memorable, meaningful, and fun, which contributes both
awareness and image. The name was originally derived from a
carbonated apple drink, but clearly was extensible to a variety of juice

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drinks. The individual names for the flavored beverages, such as “Bali
Blast,” “Mango Madness,” or “Amazing Grape” added exotic, fun, and
flavorful image elements to the brand. The memorable slogan, “Made
from the best stuff on Earth,” conveyed important associations such
as natural and healthy, while the jokingly hyperbolic tone suggested a
casual and humorous brand personality. Snapple’s packaging, with the
wide-mouth 16 oz. glass bottle was functional and innovative, while
also aesthetically interesting. The quirky package design set Snapple
apart from other beverage brands. The brand character, Wendy, had a
number of associations, including honesty, relevance, fun, and New
York personality. The latter association may not have been a positive
for all U.S. consumers, since it suggested regionality for the brand.
Wendy also represented consumer involvement and engagement,
because of the letter-writing ad campaign she starred in. Students can
be asked how Snapple mixed and matched its brand elements to
maximize their contribution to brand equity.

Snapple’s marketing program is the next aspect of the brand building

that should be discussed. The product is a good place to start.
Snapple’s unique flavor variety positioned it as a more interesting
alternative to fruit juices. Students can be asked how a brand should
balance product variety over time. Too many varieties can overwhelm
consumers and anger retailers, since some varieties won’t sell. With
too few flavors, consumers get bored and look to other brands for
alternatives. Snapple’s points-of-parity and points-of-difference
relative to other beverages can be discussed as well. For example,
points-of-parity with soft drinks were refreshment and portability,
while points-of-difference were all-natural and fruit juice.

Snapple’s channel strategy, which emphasized “up-and-down-the-

street” locations in convenience stores, newsstands, and other small
shops, also set it apart from other juice drinks. One consequence of
this strategy was that the brand became spontaneous and
experiential, because it could be consumed directly after a purchase,
as opposed to a grocery-store brand that was consumed in the home.
Snapple’s communication strategy was also vital to the development
of a cult following. The brand’s television advertising, with the Wendy
character as a brand spokesperson, used a letter-writing formula to
support the brand’s image as quirky, fun, and consumer-focused. The
ads used real letters from real Snapple customers, and then
responded to the letters by filming segments starring those customers
and using them in the commercials. Snapple also sponsored talk-show
hosts Rush Limbaugh and Howard Stern, and used a variety of public
relations and promotion campaigns. Finally, students can discuss
Snapple’s price point and its image implications.

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Here a mental map of the Snapple brand will be useful to elucidate
consumer attitudes toward the brand and sources of equity. Students
should arrive at the conclusion that Snapple was a strong brand with
a strong community of users.

The Quaker Oats segment of the case can be used to illustrate several
key points. First, Quaker’s $1.7 billion purchase of Snapple is a good
point to discuss valuing a brand. Students can be asked the broad
question of how to value a brand, and how it relates to customer-
based brand equity. Then the discussion can turn to specific valuation
methodology, such as the Interbrand method or a price/volume
premium method.
Using either methodology, the value of the Snapple brand should not
exceed $1 billion. Which begs the question, why did Quaker Oats pay
such a premium for the brand? For Quaker to justify such a high price
for Snapple, it must have assumed that the brand was worth more to
them than to any other company. Students can analyze why Quaker
might have reason to make that assumption. One possible reason is
that Quaker expected to leverage channel strength developed by its
Gatorade brand.

Next, the discussion can turn to the mistakes Quaker made with the
brand. First, Quaker misunderstood Snapple’s personality. It changed
many things about the brand, starting with the distribution system by
piggybacking it with Gatorade. Quaker also entered the supermarket
category with large size bottles, up to 64 ounces. Quaker changed
Snapple’s marketing, letting Wendy, Rush, and Howard go in favor of
a campaign celebrating the brand’s desire to be the number-three
beverage brand titles “Threedom is Freedom.” Next, Quaker lowered
the price on Snapple, expecting increased volume to make up for the
lower price. This price affected Snapple’s premium positioning,
however. Quaker also changed the label and packaging for Snapple,
moves that did not sit well with loyal consumers. Other mistakes
included missing the big summer selling season because it didn’t
understand the juice market, slowing product innovation, and
underestimating competition from the likes of Arizona, Nantucket
Nectars, and Lipton.

The final piece of the case deals with Triarc Beverage Group’s
purchase of Snapple and the subsequent turnaround of the brand.
Triarc bought Snapple from Quaker for a mere $300 million, which
can be tied back in to the topic of valuation. The discussion can focus
on Triarc’s back to basics approach to revitalizing Snapple. When
Triarc took over, it still had the same product and still had high
awareness, but was faced with the conventional wisdom that dictated
fading beverage brands do not rebuild. Triarc identified the five

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biggest challenges facing the brand and worked immediately to
address them. Students can be asked to identify key areas for
improvement. Triarc found the following five remedies for the brand:
1. Bring back product innovation
a. Whipper Snapple, Snapple Elements, limited edition
bottles
2. Bring personality back to the advertising
a. Reinstate Wendy
b. More events & promotions
c. Revitalize tagline, “Best stuff is in here”
d. “Little Fruits” ads
3. Fix packaging
a. Add new labels, with Snapple employee pictures
b. Withdraw oversize bottles
4. Mend distribution
a. Repair relationships with independent and local
distributors
b. Return to focus on “up-and-down-the-street”
distribution
5. Respect Seasonality
a. Took over in March, had a big push by the summer
selling season

Triarc’s swift response sent a message to core consumers that

Snapple was back, and sales rapidly picked up. Here students can
discuss the challenges of keeping a brand fresh and maintaining
equity over time through innovation and relevance, as described in
Chapter 13. A final piece of the discussion can include Cadbury
Schweppes $1.45 billion purchase of Snapple in 2000, and the task of
keeping the brand growing.

Key Lessons

 Strong brands have rich, cohesive brand images and well-

entrenched brand values.
 Strong brands create bonds and achieve resonance with
consumers by in-depth understanding of what the brand
means
 Building a strong brand is art and science — creativity is
critical.
 The value of a brand depends, in part, on what you can
and want to do with it.
 Violating a brand promise leads to adverse consequences
 Revitalizing a brand starts by first “leveling off” the sales
slide.

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  Keeping a brand “fresh” over time requires innovation and
relevance throughout the marketing program.

Discussion Questions

1) How would you characterize Snapple's brand image and sources

of brand equity? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the
brand's existing personality and image?

 Brand Image/Equity
o Personality: fun, quirky, customer-friendly
o Healthy/all-natural
o Innovative juice flavors

 Strengths and Weaknesses

o Strong associations to juice products, enables
extensions but limits their breadth
o Healthy image, but not 100 % juice like other brands
o Juice associations make Snapple vulnerable to tea
competitors
o Personality is unique, lots of equity

2) Where did Quaker go wrong? What could they or should they

have done differently? Is Cadbury in danger of making the same
mistakes as Quaker did?

 Detailed in notes above

3) How effective and appropriate do you think Triarc’s marketing

program was? What changes, if any, would you recommend
Cadbury make to Snapple marketing?

 Triarc Marketing
o “Back to Basics” approach resonated with
consumers
o Found a unique use for Wendy as promotion
spokesperson, which was not repetition of earlier
television advertising
o “Little Fruits” ads award-winning, humorous, and
vast improvement on “Threedom is Freedom”
 Cadbury changes
o Brand image & positioning
o Packaging
o Distribution

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4) How has Snapple’s sale to Cadbury affected Snapple’s equity?
What are the dangers of the brand’s association with a large
corporation?

 Brand based on quirky, independent image

 This image could be adversely affected if links to Cadbury
made too overt

5) What do you think Cadbury’s next moves with Snapple should be? Should the
company attempt to expand or reposition Snapple? Should Cadbury spin-off its
Americas Beverages group?

 Back to basics to revive the brand

 Focus on product innovation
 Brand personality revival
 Adjust packaging and get rid of the big sizes
 Work on distribution
 Emphasize seasonality
 Separate the brand from Cadbury

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Accenture - Rebranding a Global Brand
Teaching Notes

Summary

This case reviews two main topics: how to build a strong professional
services brand and how to accomplish a rebranding. The case traces
the history of Accenture, formerly called Andersen Consulting, as it
grew from a consulting offshoot of an accounting firm to a leading
professional services firm. Accenture employed marketing strategies
to help it achieve this success, and it was the first consulting firm to
develop advertising campaigns targeting senior executives. The
second part of the case details the rebranding and relaunch of
Accenture, which was global in scope and was achieved in a mere 147
days. In that time, Accenture developed a new name, logo, launch
advertising campaign, and positioning. Students may consider the
following questions before class discussion:
1) How would you characterize Andersen Consulting’s brand
equity in the late-90s? What factors and decisions
contributed to the building of this equity?
2) Compare the characteristics of Accenture’s brand equity to
those of Andersen Consulting. Do you think the rebranding
and repositioning of the company successfully transferred
the equity from the old name to the new one?
3) How much of a competitive threat is IBM? How should
Accenture best compete with them?
4) Evaluate the effectiveness of Tiger Woods as a spokesman
for the company. Is Accenture achieving its objectives with
a celebrity spokesman?

Teaching Objectives

1) To analyze branding in the professional services category

2) To examine marketing techniques in terms of building
awareness and developing image
3) To review the design of global marketing programs
4) To discuss legal issues in branding
5) To analyze the process of repositioning a brand
6) To review the issues involved in a rebranding

Teaching Strategy

The Accenture case has two main parts, the first on building a
professional services brand and the second on rebranding and

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repositioning a company. There is also plenty of information to make a
discussion of legal issues in branding worthwhile. Students should be
familiar with the story of the rebranding, since it occurred in 2001.
The history of the brand may be less familiar, and it will be useful to
start with the branding of a professional services firm.

The discussion can start with a history of Accenture, starting with its
early days as a consulting arm of Arthur Andersen up to the 1987
“image initiative” that eventually led to the creation of Andersen
Consulting as a separate business unit in 1989. Name selection
criteria is a good topic to introduce here, especially since it will come
up again with respect to the Accenture rebranding. Also, the 1989
renaming was the beginning of a concerted branding effort by
Accenture management, which until that time had not been seriously
undertaken in the professional services category. Students can be
asked what values and characteristics are important to clients of
consulting companies and how Accenture communicated its values
and characteristics. Students can also be asked to contrast the values
and characteristics important for consulting companies with those
important for accounting firms. Here, a discussion of Accenture’s
association with Arthur Andersen in terms of how it affected
Accenture’s points-of-parity and points-of-difference in the consulting
category may be useful.

Accenture was one of the first professional services firms to advertise,

and in 1989 it accounted for 50 percent of the media expenditures by
consulting firms. Students can discuss the “early-mover” advantage
and whether they think it played a role in Accenture’s rise. Television
advertising was an important component of Accenture’s early brand-
building effort, but the company also supplemented its image ads with
print ads, public relations, articles in journals and the business press,
and by innovating with airport advertising.

Accenture also kept tabs on its brand development by employing

sophisticated research methods. From the start, Andersen Consulting
conducted extensive market research focusing on five factors: (1)
awareness, (2) client satisfaction, (3) buyer values, (4) advertising
copy, and (5) media portrayal. It also conducted a tracking study to
monitor awareness of the brand in the marketplace. Students can
discuss the value of a brand equity measurement system, as well as
various research techniques, as described in Chapters 8 and 9.

Once Accenture became a leader in its field by the mid-1990s,

conflicts with parent company Arthur Andersen began. The legal
issues involved are complicated, but discussion can refer to legal
branding issues from Chapter 4 for some insights. The basic problem

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was marketplace confusion due to the similar names of Andersen
Consulting and Arthur Andersen and the fact that the companies were
linked in a corporate structure. Also, Arthur Andersen had begun to
compete in the consulting category, further blurring the distinction
between the two companies in the minds of consumers. To remedy the
situation, Accenture filed for arbitration and won independence from
Arthur Andersen.

A stipulation of the arbitration decision was for Accenture to give up

the Andersen Consulting name, which leads to the last section of the
case on rebranding. Here the discussion can touch on the most
obvious aspect of a rebranding process, the renaming. Chapter 4
contains much useful information on renaming. It provides naming
guidelines, such as brand awareness is improved to the extent that
brand names are 1) simple and easy to pronounce or spell, 2) familiar
and meaningful, and 3) different, distinctive, and unusual. Accenture
can be evaluated in terms of these criteria. The discussion can also
include the various types of names, as listed in Figure 4-4: Landor’s
Brand Name Taxonomy. Next, the process of finding a new name can
be discussed. This process is outlined in the case and also in Chapter
4. It is important to note the time- and money-consuming aspects of
this process, particularly when a global name search is being
conducted. The legal aspects of selecting a trademark, which are
covered in Brand Focus 4.0: Legal Branding Considerations, should
also be discussed. The Accenture name, meant to suggest an “accent
on the future” can be evaluated in terms of its contribution to brand
equity.

Aside from the name, Accenture also developed a new logo, a new
marketing communications strategy, and a new positioning for the
firm. The new logo, with its “greater-than” symbol pointing the way
forward, was meant to visually represent an accent on the future.
Students also can consider the pre-launch teaser campaign and the
initial name launch campaign and subsequent brand campaign
themed “Now it gets interesting” in terms of their building awareness,
creating an image, and level of integration. Other aspects of the
coordinated launch can be discussed as well. Students can discuss
how effectively the brand elements and the marketing campaign
conveyed Accenture’s repositioning, which was begun before the
name search. [Note that the new positioning was done before the
name search, but it wasn’t launched externally until February 2001].
Here, the task of managing a brand over time, as detailed in Chapter
13, can be discussed.

The discussion can conclude by considering Accenture’s “I am your

idea” campaign as an extension of the rebranding campaign. The

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campaign also coincided with a refined positioning centered around
the brand essence “Innovation Delivered.” Students can analyze this
new positioning as it relates to the preceding positioning (“Bridging
Boundaries to Create the Future”) and Accenture’s growth strategy.
Accenture’s refined personality traits (Innovative, Smart,
Collaborative, and Passionate) and positioning statement (“From
innovation to execution, Accenture helps accelerate your vision”) can
also be discussed and analyzed. These discussion topics can be tied
into the lesson from Chapter 3: Brand Positioning and Values. A
fruitful discussion can address how “flexible” a positioning should be
and how often it should change. Accenture’s clearly evolved over time
as their capabilities – and client’s needs – grew. Would they be able to
transcend being a consulting company? How? This story is still
unfolding and should be of keen interest to students.

Key Lessons

 Professional services brands can be built using the

principles of customer-based brand equity model
 Brand positioning and values can help guide branding
decisions
 Implementing a brand equity measurement and
management system is vital to understanding the sources
and results of brand equity, as well as to developing
means for building additional equity
 A rebranding is a costly exercise, but if done properly it
can preserve or improve the equity of the former brand.

Discussion Questions

1) How would you characterize Andersen Consulting’s brand

equity in the late-1990s? What factors and decisions
contributed to the building of this equity?

 Equity
o High awareness in category
o High consideration in category
o Reputation for technological expertise
o Strong reputation for strategy implementation
o Network of offices and partners created global
network
o High “mindshare” and “heartshare”
o Perceived as a good value

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  Factors and Decisions
o Emphasis on IT services beginning in late 1980s
o Focus on brand-building
o Integrated marketing program, high-profile media
buys
o Implementation of a brand equity management &
measurement system

2) Compare the characteristics of Accenture’s brand equity to

those of Andersen Consulting. Do you think the rebranding and
repositioning of the company successfully transferred the equity
from the old name to the new one?

 Accenture’s Equity
o In all but a few countries, Accenture name
registered comparable awareness levels
o Retained consideration in category
o Retained reputation for technology and strategy
o Added more global image
 Effective Transfer?
o With few exceptions, students should conclude that
the transfer was effective
3) How much of a competitive threat is IBM? How should
Accenture best compete with them?

 Very strong competitor, especially after purchasing

PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting
 Strong technical skills and research staff
 Accenture’s edge lies in its history of solving business
problems and its industry knowledge, while IBM has
better been known as a technology company
 Open for class discussions and arguments

4) Evaluate the effectiveness of Tiger Woods as a spokesman for

the company. Is Accenture achieving its objectives with a
celebrity spokesman?

 Tiger’s image of strength, mastery, discipline, and

relentless focus on winning resonate with Accenture’s
positioning of high-performance business
 Evaluation is open for class discussions and arguments

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