Max Theilacker

A multi-stakeholder IMC framework for networked brand identity

Purpose Past integrated marketing communications (IMC) frameworks have established brand contacts as important sources of information and feedback. This paper aims to discuss how the presence of multiple brand stakeholders and the proliferation of digital media increase the amount of brand information generated exponentially. When a firm fails to harness this information, it risks misalignment between brand identity and brand image, which, in turn, tarnishes brand-equity. Design/methodology/approach Past IMC frameworks are reviewed and extended to identify specific brand contact points between multiple stakeholders that hold significant potential to dynamically reconfigure brand identity. Theoretical propositions regarding the IMC function’s role in managing these contact points to generate brand-equity are offered. Findings The brand contacts described and their successful integration into a firm’s brand-equity strategy extend current IMC-based brand-equity models and suggest fruitful, novel avenues for creating brand-equity. Further, these brand contacts offer practical examples of how the scope of marketing communications can be redefined. Originality/value This paper contributes to the body of research on the elevation of IMC to a strategic level function. In addition to the synergistic communication of the brand offering, IMC needs to play a pivotal role in coordinating the contacts between the brand and stakeholders, and in extrapolating relevant brand insights from these contacts.

Potential Dimensions of Customer Co–Creation

Customer co-creation—the active involvement of customers in a firm’s new product development (NPD) processes—has been shown to improve product quality, reduce the risk of a product failing (Shah 2006; Carbonell, Rodriguez-Escudero and Pujari 2009), and, ultimately, enable firms to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage (Prahalad and Ramaswamy 2004). To date, the open innovation literature (Chesbrough 2003; Chesbrough, Vanhaverbeke and West 2006) has largely adopted a universalistic perspective of co-creation, whereby customer co-creation is treated as an one-dimensional, undifferentiated concept. In a first step towards a more differentiated perspective, the study reported in this paper examines whether dimensions exist that are fundamental (i.e., core) to customer co-creation practice. If such dimensions exist, then it would be possible to explore in follow-up studies whether different co-creation archetypes can be identified by observing if there are any systematic variations in the manifestations of the dimensions in co-creation practice.

Make It More Authentic: The Drivers of Positive Ad Evaluations in Co-created Health Communications

The reported lack of research on consumer-to-health department interactions (Andersen et al. 2012) and the audience’s perceptions that many health campaigns greatly exaggerate health risks (Cancer Vic 2012) suggest that increased consumer involvement in the design of health messages and increased message authenticity may enhance the persuasiveness of many, limitedly successful public health campaigns (e.g., Darrow and Biersterker 2008; de Gruchy and Coppel 2008; Kerr et al. 2013). Source effects literature (Wilson and Sherrell 1993) suggests that positive message evaluations may be strengthened when the audience develops a sense of identification with the message source. Similar, audience evaluations may benefit from messages that are perceived to be more authentic, since message authenticity enables self-referencing to the scenarios depicted in the health message (Ertimur and Gilly 2012).