Brand and Product Management

Web 2.0 provides gathering places for internet users in blogs, forums, and chat rooms. These gathering places leave footprints in the form of colossal amounts of data regarding consumers' thoughts, beliefs, experiences, and even interactions. In this paper, we propose an approach for firms to explore online user-generated content and "listen" to what customers write about their and the competitors' products. Our objective is to convert the user-generated content to market structures and competitive landscape insights.

In August 2009 Marvel Entertainment considers a merger with the Walt Disney Company. If Marvel shareholders approve the deal, each Marvel shareholder will receive $30 in cash and 0.7452 shares of Disney per Marvel share, together worth $50 - or a 29 premium over Marvel's stock price at that point in time.

What is business anthropology and what should it be in the future? My reflections are based upon my reading of others’ work and my own experience as an observant participant in marketing research and advertising. My current practice is that of a Principal at a marketing research firm, with which I have been affiliated since 2006. For 25 years prior, I was an advertising executive, working in the areas of account management and account planning.

This article presents a consumer-psychology model of brands that integrates empirical studies and individual constructs (such as brand categorization, brand affect, brand personality, brand symbolism and brand attachment, among others) into a comprehensive framework. The model distinguishes three levels of consumer engagement (object-centered, self-centered and social) and five processes (identifying, experiencing, integrating, signifying and connecting). Pertinent psychological constructs and empirical findings are presented for the constructs within each process.

We examine decision makers' use of tacit linguistic intuitions and explicit linguistic knowledge for brand name translations from English to Chinese. We present a market study, which reveals that managers intuitively use linguistic sound and meaning characteristics, that is, which sounds and meanings best fit for the Chinese translation of the English names. A subsequent experiment shows that generalized types of existing name approaches (that is, whether the names are translated based on sound or based on meaning) are employed as explicit benchmark standards for new names.

We propose a method for estimating substitute and lost demand when only sales and product availability data are observable, not all products are displayed in all periods (e.g., due to stock-outs or availability controls), and the seller knows its aggregate market share. The model combines a multinomial logit (MNL) choice model with a non-homogeneous Poisson model of arrivals over multiple periods. Our key idea is to view the problem in terms of primary (or first-choice) demand; that is, the demand that would have been observed if all products had been available in all periods.

Whether done intentionally or out of habit, many behaviors are repeated. Prior research has demonstrated that past behavior is an excellent predictor of future behavior in contexts as varied as media use, eating and drinking, substance abuse, voting, and travel mode choice, just to name a few. Although no one denies the evidence regarding the prevalence of repeat behavior and the predictive power of past behavior, two issues remain intensely debated

Over the years, the level of analytical rigor has risen in articles published in marketing academic journals. While, ceteris paribus, rigor is desirable, there is a growing sense that rigor has become a, if not the, goal for research in marketing. Consequently, other desirable characteristics, such as relevance, communicability, and simplicity, have been downplayed, to the detriment of the field of marketing.