Carlson on Branding

The Institute for Research in Marketing at the Carlson School of Management held its inaugural conference, Carlson on Branding, May 19-20, 2006. Featuring presentations by international experts from leading business schools including Carlson, Marshall (Southern California), and Tuck (Dartmouth), as well as industry experts from 3M, Cargill, Kraft and General Mills, this conference covered a range of topics on building, leveraging, identifying and measuring, and protecting a brand.

“Carlson on Branding was designed to bring together leading academics and practitioners in the branding field. The cutting-edge research presented here reflects the interest and expertise of Carlson faculty on a topic of increasing importance,” said Rohini Ahluwalia, Associate Professor of Marketing and the conference chair.

Highlights of the conference included presentations by

Professor Kevin Lane Keller of the Tuck School at Dartmouth on key aspects of brand building. Keller’s presentation blended art and science impart a researched based model for developing and implementing brand plans.

Professors Deborah Roedder John and Barbara Loken of the Carlson School on their innovative “brand concept mapping” technique. John and Loken introduced a new methodology for eliciting brand association networks, a quantitative measure of brand meaning which is of value to academic researchers and brand managers.
Kent Seltman, Director of Marketing at Mayo Clinic on offensive and defensive brand protection. Seltman integrated various academic processes presented throughout the conference and demonstrated effective methods of safeguarding a brand.

Over ninety representatives from academia and industry attended the two-day, 14 session conference. Jim Schroer, President and CEO of Carlson Marketing and member of the Institute’s Advisory Board, expressed his delight at the Carlson School taking the lead position on the topic of branding. “I look forward to working with this assembly as we tackle the big issues and opportunities presented here.”

Akshay R. Rao, Director of the Institute for Research in Marketing and General Mills Professor of Marketing echoed these sentiments. “Carlson faculty has pioneered research on key topics featured prominently at the conference, such as brand dilution, brand equity measurement, and cross-cultural branding.”

A follow-up conference co-sponsored by the Marketing Science Institute is scheduled for June 2007.


	To view a summary of each session and other pertinent information, please click on the title of the talk below. Clicking on a speaker's name will bring you to a short bio. Friday, May 19, 2006 Strategic Brand Management on the Cutting Edge: Building, Leveraging, Identifying, and Protecting Brands Prof. Deborah Roedder John, Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota Brands are strategic assets requiring cutting edge management skills. This presentation offers a view of the management tasks that must be accomplished to fully realize the opportunities that strategic brands offer in today's competitive environment. The presentation will introduce the BLIP model of strategic brand management, focusing on four key brand management tasks: building, leveraging, identifying, and protecting brands. Part I: Building and Leveraging a Brand Building Strong Brands: Three Models for Developing and Implementing Brand Plans Prof. Kevin Lane Keller, Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College Building a strong brand is both an art and a science. To help marketers understand how to better develop and implement effective brand plans, three models of increasing scope are reviewed. The Competitive Brand Positioning Model, the Brand Resonance Model, and the Brand Value Chain model help guide marketers' thinking and decisions with respect to their brands. Panel Discussion: Branding in Industrial Markets Prof. George John, Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota Paul Hillen, VP, Food Ingredients & Systems, Cargill This panel will engage in focused discussion of cutting-edge topics on branding in B2B settings including topics such as using ingredient brands versus unlabeled ingredients in OEM sales. Branding Across Cultures Prof. Akshay R. Rao, Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota Based on recent empirical research, Professor Rao will examine cross-cultural differences in consumer behavior which have important implications for brand attitudes, switching and loyalty, and price sensitivity. These results are then used to examine emerging substantive and methodological research opportunities with particular relevance to emerging Asian economies including India and China. Panel Discussion: Global Branding Prof. Michael J. Houston, Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota Prof. Sharon Shavitt, University of Illinois Susan Flach, Director, Consumer Insights and Strategy, Kraft Foods Whether it is in the information on which they focus or how they organize their thoughts, people from different cultures or with different self-views seem to think differently. We will explore what this means for how they think about brands and brand extensions. Implications for global brands are considered. Part II: Protecting Brand Assets Consumer Insight and Brand Protection Michael Gannon, Consumer Insights and Strategy, 3M Brand protection does not begin once you've identified your first infringer, rather, it is a process that should begin at the conception of the brand development process. From the initial stages of trademark clearance to the various legal avenues available for trademark enforcement, this session will focus on the best means to develop strong and protectable brands. Branding Between the Lines: Protecting your Brand and Managing Gray Markets Prof. Mark E. Bergen, Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota Brands can be used and abused by channel members and the sale of branded products through unauthorized, or "gray," markets is a multifaceted problem for suppliers. Because those sales have the potential to dilute a brand, tarnish relationships with authorized dealers, and even lead to legal wrangling, protecting your brand in the face of gray markets is an important challenge for brand managers. By following a three-fold approach, the three S's, which includes sensing the emergence of such markets, speedily addressing them, and using appropriate severity when applying counter-measures, management can fight back against the gray markets and even take advantage of some of their hidden benefits. Now That You’ve Established a Leading Brand: What You Need to Do to Protect It J. Patrick Wheeler, Asset Tracking and Protection, 3M Brand protection plays an integral role in building a successful brand. This presentation will provide a framework for addressing trends to reduce risk to your brand and will examine the current state of global trade with focus on current industry data and trends on issues that threaten global brand owners, as well as some of the key drivers of these trends. Shoring Up or Watering Down?: Brand Extension & Dilution Prof. Barbara Loken, Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota Leveraging a brand by introducing new line and brand extensions is a popular strategy that is cost effective in the short run. However, few models of branding have identified empirically-based strategies that are important in extending brands. The risks of introducing brand extensions not only include the possibility of failure of the brand extension, but also dilution of the parent brand. This presentation discusses the empirical research on brand extensions and brand dilution, and identifies key prescriptive themes for extending brands. Coaching the Champion Brand: Offense and Defense Kent Seltman, Director of Marketing, Mayo Clinic In the mid-1990s, when Mayo Clinic recognized that its name was its most valuable asset, it embarked on a mission to move beyond "reputation management" to "brand management." Protection of the brand is both defense and offense: defense against internal dilution and external infringement and offense against staid irrelevance in new and evolving markets. The story of this iconic not-for-profit brand raises questions that challenge both academicians and practitioners focused on brand management. Saturday, May 20, 2006 Part III: Issues in Brand Measurement An Integrative Framework of Brand Equity: Bringing Together Customer and Company Perspectives Prof. C.W. Park, Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California Based on a critical overview of prior research on brand equity from both the customers' and the firm's perspectives, an integrative conceptual framework is proposed in which brand equity and other brand performance-related constructs are brought together. The meaning of brand equity and its conceptual properties are identified and reflected in its operationalization. This presentation examines theoretical support for and empirical testing of brand equity measure in this framework. Diagnostic analyses of the proposed brand equity measure and managerial implications are also discussed. A New Stage for the Guthrie Theatre: Refreshing an Iconic Brand Nathalie Wilson, Vice President, Yamamoto Moss MacKenzie Founded in 1963, The Guthrie Theater was America 's flagship theater sparking the nation's regional theater movement. Forty-plus years later, the venerable brand was poised to move to a new signature multi-stage facility on the banks of the Mississippi River . The move signaled more than a change of location. It underscored the Guthrie's intent to expand its cultural landscape and retain its pre-eminence among theaters nationally and internationally. Nathalie Wilson will outline the brand challenges and strategies associated with moving the Guthrie to the next stage. Brand Concept Maps: Measuring What Your Brand Means to Consumers Prof. Barbara Loken, Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota Prof. Deborah Roedder John, Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota Strong brands are characterized by a network of strong, favorable and unique brand associations that customers identify with the brand. This presentation introduces a new methodology, Brand Concept Maps, for eliciting brand association networks from customers and aggregating this information to identify a consensus view (or map) of the brand. Consensus brand maps include the core brand associations that define the brand's image, showing which brand associations are linked directly to the brand, indirectly to the brand, or grouped together with regard to the brand. Increasing the Odds of Success: Measuring your Brand to Make Confident Decisions on Brand Extensions Jeff Hunter, Director of Opportunity Measurement and Experimentation, General Mills Brand measurement is an essential component when it comes to considering possible brand extensions and their viability. General Mills has developed a diagnostic database to help measure the meaning of a parent brand, its relative strength, and the extent to which possible brand extensions are in line with the parent brand's meaning. All of these can help predict the success or failure of each of the many brand extensions that come up for consideration. Jeff Hunter, Director of Opportunity Measurement and Experimentation at General Mills, will discuss these factors and their impact on the continued strength of General Mills' core brands.