Since May 2013, the Indian rupee has seen a massive depreciation in its value against the US dollar. It is not the only currency which is facing the music due to the expected easing of stimulus measures by the US Federal Reserve in the later part of the current year; the currencies of other emerging markets too have taken a beating during this time. Such events are the latest in a series of events which expose the vulnerability of the firms to the factors which are beyond their control. These events reinforce to the firms the importance of being proactive in strategy formulation. Firms all over the world are intently looking for various sources of information which may enable them to formulate cutting-edge strategies to face the dynamism of the ever-changing business environment. Our journal comes across as one such source which brings forth the latest research from academia for the pertinent usage by both academic and the corporate world.

In the first paper, “The Nature and Scope of Brand Portfolio Signals Within Brand Portfolio Management”, the author, Henrik Uggla, 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. According to the author, brand portfolio signals might be powerful stimuli that can create a strategic response from key audiences in the market, besides providing subtle tools in a brand equity distribution process in between business strategy, brand strategy and market opportunity. The author asserts that brand portfolio signals may change the perceived psychological and financial value of the brand in the short term, even if the brand value will be tarnished in the long term.

In the second paper, “The Influence of Employer Branding on Productivity-Related Outcomes of an Organization”, the authors, Alan Robertson and Ali Khatibi, aim to identify the significant outcomes of employer branding on organizational productivity and attempt to ascertain which organizational factors impact upon the relationship between the two. For this empirical study, the authors collected data from 369 Sri Lankan companies. The results indicate that a well-developed employer branding strategy enables an organization to achieve significantly higher employee productivity-related outcomes than a partially-developed or undeveloped strategy.

In the third paper, “Healthy Food Behavior and Celebrity Endorsement for Healthy Food Brands: A Study of Indian Housewives”, the authors, Kirti Dutta and Swati Singh, explore how celebrity endorsers can be employed by the healthy food industry to influence the customers. The paper focuses on the Indian housewives and how they are influenced in their purchase decision regarding healthy food. It explores the attitude of the housewives towards healthy food brand purchase. It then attempts to ascertain the ideal celebrity for endorsing healthy food through the respondent’s perception of the celebrity’s healthy food consumption behavior. It then 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.

In the last paper, “Celebrity-Aided Brand Recall and Brand-Aided Celebrity Recall: An Assessment of Celebrity Influence Using the Hierarchy of Effects Model ”, the authors, T Joel Gnanapragash and P C Sekar, introduce a new recall concept termed as celebrity-aided brand recall and brand-aided celebrity recall. They also identify the selected celebrity-aided recall of brands and selected brand-aided recall of celebrities. Further, they examine the extent to which the celebrities influenced the respondents using the Hierarchy-of-Effects Model of Lavidge and Steiner. Their research stresses the need for the marketers to ensure that their brands do not lose its person-based schema of consumers, which may be affected by multiple endorsement.

- Nitin Gupta
Consulting Editor