Volume 12 (2023-24)

Each volume of Journal of Brand Strategy consists of four 100-page issues in both print and online. Articles scheduled for Volume 12 are available to view on the 'Forthcoming content' page.

Volume 12 Number 2

Editorial
Casey Jones, Publisher
Are your brand-building efforts really working? A new analytical approach for assessing and growing your brand
Emiko Seale

Despite the proliferation of data and new technologies over the past several decades, brands remain challenged with finding comprehensive and data-driven solutions for measuring and improving brand health. By combining analytical concepts developed in the last century around consumer loyalty with currently available data and technology, marketers can more precisely define and measure brand health as well as grow loyalty over time with targeting strategies that drive short-term returns. This approach, anchored in levels of loyalty, provides an alternative to the traditional brand purchase funnel in orienting brand-building strategies and offers marketers new opportunities for assessing and ensuring brand performance in this post-pandemic climate of shifting consumer needs and uncertain macroenvironmental dynamics.
Keywords: brand building; brand health; movable middles; switching behaviour; beta distribution; loyalty spectrum; marketing effectiveness; measurement; CPG; retail media
The seven faces of consumer sustainability, and what they mean for brands
Nick Baker

Sustainability is still a driving force behind the marketing approach taken by many brands. There are, however, risks associated with perceptions of ‘greenwashing’ and a potential failure to understand the attitudes and behaviours behind consumer behaviour in this area — in particular, the ‘say-do’ gap. This pertains to what people think about sustainability and how it actually affects their buying patterns. This paper analyses the findings from an extensive study of more than 12,000 adults in the USA, Canada and UK to identify seven consumer segments characterised by personas that identify their thinking and buying behaviours across a number of important consumer product and service categories. It thereby offers marketers new insight into how the nuances of these personas can inform future campaigns developed around sustainability.
Keywords: sustainability; corporate social responsibility; research
Marketing is only as good as your operations: How the AAOS transformed its internal processes to improve the customer experience and increase member retention
Amber P. Simpson and Anthony Priore

No matter how efficient, professional or creatively pleasing your marketing tactics are, if your company does not have the user experience fine-tuned on the back end of your business (operations), your customer experience could be flawed. American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) transformed its internal processes and operations and polled its members to improve the customer experience and increase member retention by focusing on each of the important points of contact throughout the customer journey. This paper shares important takeaways, methods and results from this overhaul and serves as a template of how your business might be able to emulate this type of success too.
Keywords: member journey; customer personas; marketing analytics; user experience; UX/UI; barriers to entry; customer retention; customer acquisition
How do teenagers project their identity online, and what role do brands play in the process? A multimethod study on Instagram
Amélie Guèvremont and Laurence Dubé-Beaudin

Although teenagers’ active social networking and their tendency to develop strong relationships with brands are both recognised in the literature, not much is known about how the content they post on their social media accounts (eg Instagram) relates to their identity and how brands are integrated in their posts. This study is aimed at improving the understanding of teenagers’ identity projection on Instagram and the role brands play in their self-image presentation. Thirty individual interviews, nonparticipant observation and content analysis of 90 photos were conducted. The results reveal self-profile consistency as well as the portrayal of their actual self by teenagers on their online profile. In addition, results indicate that although teenagers tend to develop strong brand relationships, they do not strategically select brands to post on their social networks. This is particularly true for product brands (eg Nike shoes) in contrast to experiential brands (eg music festival), which are more often shared by teenagers with an intent to communicate some aspects of their self-concept. This study contributes to the literature on teenagers and social networks, a topic that has been overlooked in favour of studies involving adults.
Keywords: consumer-brand relationships; teenagers; social networks; identity
The influence of sensory branding strategies in-store on consumer preference: The South African skincare industry
Gabriella Berman, Adéle Potgieter and MadéLe Tait

Brand experience has a direct relationship with brand loyalty, compelling businesses to manage consumers’ brand experience. A vehicle for creating memorable brand experience is the utilisation of sensory branding, which is especially relevant to the skincare industry. The aim of this study was to investigate desired sensory branding strategies when shopping for skincare products in-store and the effect thereof on consumer preference. This study made use of a positivistic research paradigm and a descriptive research design. The sampling procedure utilised in this study was non-probability sampling, and the technique used was convenience sampling. The sample comprised 321 consumers who had bought skincare in-store at the time of the study, and a web-based self-administered questionnaire, distributed via a link on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, as well as sent via e-mail to an existing mailing list, was used to collect the data. Once the data was collected, both descriptive and inferential statistics were utilised to analyse and interpret the data. From the empirical data collected in this study, it was found that visual, olfactory and tactile stimuli had the largest positive influence on the experience of shopping for skincare in-store. Furthermore, it was noted that only traditional olfactory and tactile stimuli had a direct relationship with consumer preference. From the results of this study it was concluded that the most important demographic factors for marketers to base their sensory branding strategies on was age, gender and budget. Furthermore, with specific reference to the skincare industry, consumers between the ages of 45 and 60 years were identified as a desirable target audience. Additionally, as olfactory and tactile stimuli were highlighted, it was recommended that brands facilitate interaction with the product through the use of fragrance testers or an in-store beautician, thereby stimulating both senses simultaneously.
Keywords: sensory branding; multi-sensory experiences; consumer preference; traditional sensory branding; skincare industry

Volume 12 Number 1

Editorial
Simon Beckett, Publisher
Mass personalisation: A strategy for building brand equity in the healthcare sector
Franklin Parrish, Senior Director, Brand, Marketing and Creative Services, Kasier Permanente and Sharon Nevins, Chief Revenue Officer, Baltimore Banner

Marketing and content personalisation is a popular concept in the marketing field. With media consumption becoming more and more fractured, brands are attempting to drive growth by reaching niche audiences. Achieving individualised personalisation requires enormous effort to create truly differentiated messages and user journeys. Kaiser Permanente’s Mid-Atlantic region (KPMAS), in partnership with the Baltimore Sun Media Group (BSMG), developed a personalisation regime by leveraging psychographic segments based on Jungian archetypes to deliver personalisation at scale. This framework informed the messaging strategies, user journeys and media posture for a campaign to build positive brand equity in the Washington, DC, and Baltimore, Maryland Department of Medical Assistance Services (DMAS). This paper details the strategies, tactics and results of a six-month campaign conducted in Q2/Q3 of 2022. Readers can learn the techniques used to drive this successful effort — and the importance of marrying messaging and media to drive campaign performance.
Keywords: digital marketing; personalisation; content marketing; marketing strategy; personas; audience segmentation; media strategy
Bridging the brand volume/brand value measurement divide: Towards a multidimensional understanding of brand strength
Trevor Godman, Key Account Director and James Pitcher, Marketing Sciences Lead, GfK UK

With inflation rising and wages shrinking in real terms, many consumers are forced to consider every penny they spend. To generate profitable revenue in this environment, it is more important than ever for marketers to understand not just the proportion of consumers to whom their brand appeals but also the extent to which those consumers view the brand as worth paying for. Armed with this vital part of the puzzle, meaningful strategic and tactical action plans can be devised to realise that all-important profit margin. The perceptions that drive brand choice are distinctly different from the drivers of brand premium, yet many marketers are still relying on brand trackers and measurement techniques that focus exclusively on a brand’s ability to generate sales volume through legacy measures of consideration and preference. GfK’s Brand Architect provides new metrics and insight for brand strength and performance, volume and value. It does this in three ways: by providing better predictors of volume through the use of realistic brand choice simulations; by capturing the value/premium equation of a brand; and by evaluating the propensity to brand switch by observing how consumers behave across multiple brand choice situations. The approach, in which lies embedded behavioural science and conjoint analysis, has been validated during our own extensive studies. In this paper, we explain the framework and use real brands to show how the technique can be used for effective brand management. We have provided a summary of the validation work we have carried out to show that this approach is rooted in commercial reality. It cannot only provide a highly strategic framework for brand management, but it also offers deeper insights into brand repertoires and richer diagnostics on how to drive volume, value or both according to the brand’s objectives.
Keywords: brand premium; brand choice; brand strength; brand architect; brand switching; sales volume; sales value
Six strategies to building successful communities in the Metaverse
Catherine D. Henry, SVP, Web3 & Metaverse Innovation Strategy, Media.Monks

To be successful in today’s persistent, connected virtual marketplaces, marketing managers will need a new strategy. For years, marketers have felt that communities existed to serve business needs — but in the metaverse, brands will need to court consumers. For a new generation of ‘Virtual Natives’ new technologies are raising expectations of how brands need to show up in these worlds. As a consultant to some of the world’s biggest brands, Catherine D. Henry shares the recipe to getting it right.
Keywords: web3; metaverse; immersive; tokens; NFTs; loyalty; Customer Relationship Management; CRM
State of fear: Adapting marketing strategies towards the stressed consumer
Jake McKenzie, CEO and James D. McFarland, People Scientist, Intermark Group

Nearly three years of immense environmental stressors may be affecting how consumers process information and make decisions. Marketers can adapt to these possible changes by understanding how prolonged stress, fear and uncertainty activate the subcortical (ie more primal) regions of the human brain. Activation of these areas results in a dynamic shift between deliberate and intuitive thinking, loss of attention, memory consolidation and an increase in autonomic decision making. Understanding the potential mindset of the overstressed consumer will facilitate the formulation of more effective marketing strategies such as eliminating shock value, managing choice overload, providing emotional validation, leveraging familiarity and solidifying your brand.
Keywords: stress; fear; decision making; marketing strategy
Oat with the old, in with the new: Oatly’s creative trademarks, branding and controversial advertising campaigns
Scarlett Swain, PhD Candidate and Tutor in Intellectual Property Law, Durham Law School

In modern times brands matter, and understandably so as they have become a staple of business theory and practice and are a defining feature of the modern economy. Big names are all well aware of the power and value that their brands hold. Oatly, the Swedish company, is now one of the biggest names in the plant-based industry, but its road to success has been a somewhat unconventional one. Much can be learned from Oatly’s rise to success, especially in relation to their utilisation of trademarks, branding and controversial advertising campaigns. This paper will provide an overview of Oatly’s growth as a business and brand and critically examine Oatly’s controversial battles with the Swedish dairy lobby, and how, ultimately, through a creative use of both trademarks and advertising campaigns, Oatly was able to proactively defend against the powerful and influential dairy lobby. From here, this paper will argue that one the important factors underlying Oatly’s success was the creation of a fundamental, emotional connection between the consumer and the company by successfully implementing a form of brand activism. This paper argues that the fact that trademarks are a means of source identification for a specific brand can be used to protect the consumer while advancing the causes of environmentalism and sustainability.
Keywords: trademarks; branding; marketing; plant-based; Oatly; environmentalism
The significance of digital twins for the comprehensive brand experience
Jörn Redler, Dean, School of Business and Professor, Mainz University of Applied Sciences and Matteo Corvino, Senior Manager and Head of 3DTwin, Dassault Systèmes 3DEXCITE

This paper argues for the recognition of digital twins, virtual representations of real-time physical objects, as a noteworthy means for brand communications and brand experience management. It briefly reviews the brand experience concept and explains its contributions to shaping comprehensive brand perceptions. Building on this, the paper gives an introduction to the digital twin technology and demonstrates that digital twins need to be considered a major issue for brand experience management in the digital era and the metaverse. The paper also entails a case application to exemplify the main propositions. It ends with some recommendations for practical management and delineates some routes for future research. The paper is the first to discuss issues of the emerging field of digital twin technologies from a brand management perspective.
Keywords: brand experience management; digital branding; metaverse; digital twin technology
How packaging design influences pricing impressions and product evaluations in the food industry
Francesco Pinci, Roma Tre University, Italy

This paper analyses the perception of packaging and its influence on the cognitive and emotional aspects of the buying choice. Nowadays, aside from a good price point, it is essential to have packaging with an attractive design to be selected by the consumer at the point of sale. During the selection process, consumers will consider some particular elements shown on the packaging such as the production location, the brand name, logo and price in some cases. These specifications can strongly affect the customer’s choice. This study focuses on niche brands of pasta that are not known internationally, which means that the respondents will have to choose from unique or unknown brands they probably have not previously bought and have no previous experience with. For this study, we selected three packages of pasta from three different brands, each with different characteristics and prices. It is possible to give the candidate choices very similar to those that occur during the buying process. This study emerged from two separate studies. The first used an eye-tracking system with an accompanying survey to understand scientifically what package elements are most attractive to the consumer and then compared the data with the survey responses. In the second study, the same survey is distributed online to validate the first study and to see if the main elements of the first study are confirmed. Additionally, the consumer’s choice can be compared between the pre-price and post-price phases. In these studies, it was interesting to understand which communication aspects primarily influenced the consumer but were not part of the decision-making process of the respondent. Good communication between the brand and the customer through package design is essential to evaluate the perception of the product’s value and how the candidate’s choice changes when they are aware of the price in addition to the other elements. This is really important for marketing managers and finance managers to understand the proper communication and the correct pricing for these specific products and how this element increases or decreases the level of quality assumed by the consumer.
Keywords: marketing; food marketing; pricing; consumer behaviour