1、标题： E-marketing Strategy of Challenges and Opportunities Facing Brand Management: An Introduction to the Special Issue 原文： Investor Expectations and Brand Equity Brand managers may be subject to the whims of skittish investors devoted to quarterly earnings statements. Unprecedented levels of merger
2、and acquisition activity on Wall Street in the late 1980s, often involving leveraged buyouts, loaded buying companies and their managers with heavy debt. Squeezed by pressure from investors and lending institutions, brand managers have felt pressures to ( 1) produce short-term cash flows to meet deb
3、t coverage； ( 2) produce steady, predictable growth in earnings； and ( 3) justify how and why they expect investments in marketing strategies to add value to the company. They have responded in predictable ways to enhance short-term cash flows. First, brand prices increased faster than inflation acr
4、oss many product categories, increasing the vulnerability of national brands to growth by private labels of similar quality. This led to Marlboro Friday (April 2, 1993), when Philip Morris dramatically reduced prices to stave off competition from lower-priced cigarettes and set a precedent for other
5、 firms (Giles 1993). Second, as noted, brand managers have increased reliance on trade and consumer discounts while reducing spending on advertising. Because of slow decay in the short term, cuts in advertising have fallen straight to the bottom line. Advertisings share of the marketing budget has s
6、hifted downward from over 60% to less than one-third (Landler, Schiller, and Therrien 1991). Some marketers maintain that advertising builds long-term profitability through image differentiation, whereas promotions dilute brand value by focusing on price and discounts rather than a products distinct
7、ive features and benefits. Others question the long-term value of advertising (always difficult to measure precisely) and focus on the visible ability of promotions to affect sales. Boulding, Lee, and Staelin (1994) provide evidence for the long-term benefits of advertising and sales over promotions
8、 in creating product differentiation, possibly resolving the controversy. The quest for steady, predictable growth in profits has led to seeming risk aversion on the part of product managers. Cost savings have made it easier to introduce new products using existing brand names. The result has someti
9、mes been a focus on incremental improvements rather than genuinely new products capable of outmaneuvering existing products or opening up new markets. Reliance on brand name alone or relatively minor product changes to differentiate an offering simply results in mindless extensions and competitive c
10、lutter. Although it probably has prevented inroads by lower-priced alternatives in a few categories, in others it has led to increased buyer confusion and resistance. The trade, ever pressed for valuable shelf space, has responded with an array of special fees to discourage such proliferation. And i
11、t has affected adversely previously well-defined brand meanings and identities (Broniarczyk and Alba 1994). General Mills, for example, seemingly ignored established brand associations when it introduced Multi-Grain Cheerios. It originally treated this as a new flavor rather than recognizing the inc
12、onsistency with Cheerios long-term nutritional association with oats. Another product, Honey Gold Wheaties, has brought associations of added sugar to a well-established brand known as the Breakfast of Champions. Although these products remain on the market, they have potential to dilute the equity
13、in the original brands (Loken and John 1993). Previous research dealing with brand extensions had identified sound bases for success and found brand affect and the similarity between original and extension product categories as important factors (Aaker and Keller 1990； Keller and Aaker 1992). Severa
14、l articles in this special issue offer additional insight to aid brand managers. Broniarczyk and Alba (1994) focus on the role of brand-specific associations as distinct from category-specific ones. Their findings indicate that these associations actually may dominate brand affect and category simil
15、arity. Extensions to dissimilar categories that value the brand association should be more preferred than those to similar categories that do not. Their research also provides a rationale for why brands can extend successfully to dissimilar product categories. Dacin and Smith (1994) discuss two expe
16、riments and a consumer survey that examine the effects of three brand portfolio variables on the favorability of and confidence shown by consumers judgments regarding future extensions. Their research suggests that brand extension success is affected by the portfolio of products associated with the
17、brand and extending into many different product categories may be beneficial for a brand so long as the variance in quality remains low throughout the portfolio. Also, the brand manager often can implement line extensions in which minor variants of a single product are marketed under the same brand
18、name. Research reported by Reddy, Holak, and Bhat (1994) assembles an extensive cross-sectional and time series database from a variety of sources and, using econometric analyses, empirically investigates the determinants of success for line extensions in the cigarette industry. The authors note the
19、 consistency of their empirical findings with propositions that previously had been based on experiments or argued primarily on conceptual grounds. They also provide further support for the conclusion of Dacin and Smith that, when managed well, extensions help in building equity. For brand managemen
20、t generally, probably the most positive outcome of recent merger and buyout activity is that corporate managers now increasingly recognize brands as critical assets. Brand management is a formal component of corporate strategy. Sara Lee, for example, has made building brand equity a major corporate
21、goal. The company has mastered the art of applying its brand management skills in markets that traditionally have been fragmented or dominated by private labels. It buys leading brands and gradually builds brand strengths ultimately to own the product market-for example, the company has nurtured hig
22、h profile brands like Playtex and Hanes in the packaged apparel market. This emphasis on building and then leveraging brand equity for greater profitability has enabled Sara Lee to utilize its core competence (brand management) in markets far removed from its origins in packaged foods. Tylenol has b
23、een able to leverage endorsements from medical professionals to develop an image of safety and gentleness on the stomach. It owns over 70% of the acetaminophen market, despite other chemically identical products selling for considerably less. Aaker and Jacobson (1994), from their study of the effect of perceived quality (a concept related to brand equity) on stock price movement, argue that brand managers should convey to Wall Street analysts information about the brands quality image as well as financial information, to better depict long-term prospects for their brands.
