The Nature and Scope of Brand Portfolio Signals Within Brand Portfolio Management

--Henrik Uggla

Brand portfolio management not only requires creating and sustaining brand portfolio singals in the marketplace, but also gradually developing an understanding of those signals. This paper discusses the opportunity space for creating and sending relevant brand portfolio signals from the brand owners to the market(s) in terms of end-consumers or financial markets. In addition, a valuable distinction between strategic and tactic brand portfolio signals are provided in the text.

© 2013 IUP. All Rights Reserved.

The Influence of Employer Branding on Productivity-Related Outcomes of an Organization

--Alan Robertson and Ali Khatibi

The study aims to identify the significant outcomes of employer branding on organizational productivity and which organizational factors impact upon the relationship between the two. Data gathered from a survey of 369 Sri Lankan companies indicates that a well-developed employer branding strategy enables an organization to achieve significantly higher employee productivity-related outcomes than with a partially-developed or undeveloped strategy. Identifying the factors instrumental to the process affords an increased awareness of why this occurs, particularly in respect to the role of senior management in developing and driving the branding strategy, as well as understanding that its impact is largely ineffective until the brand image is fully developed and embedded in the internally and externally-focused identity of the organization. Although data was gathered from companies in one developing country it has practical implications for those managing employer branding programs through providing a greater understanding of the importance of organizational factors on brand strategy development in effecting the improved productivity.

© 2013 IUP. All Rights Reserved.

Healthy Food Behavior and Celebrity Endorsement for Healthy Food Brands: A Study of Indian Housewivess

--Kirti Dutta and Swati Singh

Use of celebrity to endorse brands is a concept that has been well applied by a number of players. The celebrities have a rub-off effect on the brand and help in attaining the desired position in the mind of the consumers. The paper explores how celebrity endorsers can be employed by the healthy food industry to influence the customers. The healthy food industry in India is still at a nascent stage but is showing huge potential. Marketers of these healthy food brands have targeted career men and women offering them relief from lifestyle-induced diseases. There are a myriad of products that cover consumer’s nutrition needs from breakfast to dinner. The paper is focused on the Indian housewives and how they are influenced in their purchase decision regarding healthy food. To study this, the first part of the paper explores the attitude of the housewives towards healthy food brand purchase. The second part of the study attempts to ascertain the ideal celebrity for endorsing healthy food through the respondent’s perception of the celebrity’s healthy food consumption behavior. The third part delineates some of the celebrity endorsers whom the housewives would prefer to endorse the healthy brands on the basis of their perception of the celebrities. The findings of the paper will enable marketers to target housewives more effectively and design a communication strategy that effectively convinces them to purchase the brand.

© 2013 IUP. All Rights Reserved.

Celebrity-Aided Brand Recall and Brand-Aided Celebrity Recall: An Assessment of Celebrity Influence Using the Hierarchy of Effects Model

--T Joel Gnanapragash and P C Sekar

The proliferating innovative ways of promoting brands have necessitated the assessment of the effectiveness of the tool being used. As celebrity endorsement is believed to have the stopping power in the cluttered media environment, the effectiveness of which should be assessed. While there are many ways to assess the celebrity endorsement, this research paper examines the effectiveness of celebrity used in endorsements with a different approach. This paper introduces a new recall concept termed as celebrity-aided brand recall and brand-aided celebrity recall. It also identifies the selected celebrity-aided recall of brands and selected brand-aided recall of celebrity. Further, it examines the extent to which the celebrity influenced the respondents using the Hierarchy-of-Effects Model of Lavidge and Steiner.

© 2013 IUP. All Rights Reserved.