The frontlines of brand risk: interview with Patrick Marrinan

Whether it be the NFL, Dove, Wells Fargo, VW or countless others–managers need only open a daily newspaper to see how things can go terribly wrong for brands. Decline can be fast and the landing hard. In a contemporary marketplace where ideologies reign and social media guarantees the spread of (mis)information at light speed, a lot of what we think we know about brand marketing needs to be rethought through a risk-management lens. “For me, brand risk is any event, action or condition with the potential to damage a brand’s value, thereby making revenue generation and a company’s market value less than it should or could have been,” Patrick Marrinan, Managing Principal of Marketing Scenario Analytica, states. In his talk with Susan Fournier and Shuba Srinivasan, Patrick illustrates the many facets of a risk that has only begun to be recognized as a serious threat to carefully cultivated brand assets. Here we share what to watch out for and what brands can do to protect against risk.Published versio

Branding and the risk management imperative

In an increasingly risky socioeconomic environment, management needs to proactively consider brand-related risks. To understand brands as tools for risk management, they need to understand four types of brand risk: brand reputation risk, brand dilution risk, brand cannibalization risk and brand stretch risk. Risk management is not a natural act for brand managers trained in astute execution of the 4 Ps, and contemporary market factors make this more challenging still. With an increasingly polarized society, it is almost impossible for brands to remain untouched by ideologies. In addition, the growth in digital advertising gives brand managers less control over advertising placement and context, and the mandate to keep growing adds executional risk. The more exposed a brand is to brand risk, the more attention this topic will need in the boardroom. To shift a company’s marketing philosophy toward risk, it is important to define marketing competences in a broader way, to be self-critical and to be proactive.Published versio

At-risk brand relationships and threats to the bottom line

Like a stock portfolio, each relationship type offers a brand higher or lower growth opportunities and risks. The type of relationship is particularly relevant in brand crisis events. When a brand is hit by a crisis, it is not necessarily the most successful strategy to focus exclusively on protecting positive emotional relationships. At-risk relationships are affected more than others and can lead to a significant decline of brand value. Our cases highlight that at-risk relationships represent a critical, but often overlooked, aspect of a brand’s relationship portfolio. Risks range from negative word of mouth that might have a negative impact on potential new customers to clear retention risk. Marketers should manage these risks proactively by identifying and investigating the nature of their customer relationships and by responding frankly and credibly to crisis events.Published versio

When Companies Don’t Make the Ad: A Multi-Method Inquiry into the Differential Effectiveness of Consumer-Generated Advertising

This four-part multi-method investigation into the under-researched yet increasingly prevalent phenomenon of consumer-generated advertising (CGA) confirms a performance advantage over traditional advertising and suggests a rationale for this differential. CGAs benefit from heightened consumer engagement and increased trustworthiness. CGAs also garner perceived quality advantages that are linked to consumers lowering their expectations and using different evaluation criteria to judge the ad. The ad creator—a personalized, identifiable and relatable entity in the case of CGAs— plays a central role in anchoring and shaping ad reactions. The “consumer-made” characteristic—the fact that CGAs are not made by companies but by independent people—is powerful and stands strong in the face of commercial motives, and presents paradigmatic implications for advertising practice and research

Terminating the Parental Rights of Mothers with Disabilities: An Empirical Legal Analysis

A sizable body of scholarship indicates parents with disabilities – including physical, intellectual, psychiatric, and sensory disabilities – experience pervasive inequities that threaten their fundamental right to parenthood. In particular, compared to nondisabled parents, parents with disabilities are overrepresented in the child welfare system, receive inadequate family preservation and reunification services, and have disproportionate rates of termination of parental rights. Despite extensive legal and social science scholarship, however, there are no empirical analyses of judicial opinions to identify factors that predict termination of parental rights in cases involving parents with disabilities

The Americans with Disabilities Act and Termination of Parental Rights Cases: An Examination of Appellate Decisions Involving Disabled Mothers

The right to parent has long been regarded as one of our most treasured fundamental rights. Despite the disability rights movement’s many achievements, especially the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) in 1990, the right to parenthood remains inaccessible to many people with disabilities. Scholars and advocates have posited that the ADA has not adequately protected the rights of parents with disabilities involved with the child welfare system, particularly at the termination of parental rights phase. This Article develops this critique as applied to an original empirical study of 2,064 appellate termination of parental rights decisions adjudicated between 2006 and 2016 that involved mothers with disabilities. This is the first study to conduct quantitative analyses to identify factors that predict whether the ADA is raised or applied in these cases. In particular, we aimed to understand if a mother’s disability type predicts whether courts raise or apply the ADA

Turning socio-political risk to your brand’s advantage

Employment practices, civic responsibilities, philanthropy, environmental stewardship, the conduct of corporate executives and employees, the execution of marketing campaigns: All these topics can trigger brand risk events. The challenging branding environment calls for reimagining classic brand marketing through a refreshed and updated social risk management lens. Companies need to assess which socio-economic marketing opportunities can renew brand resonance. This involves not just identifying revenue generating opportunities, but also identifying, cataloging, and tracking SEP risk types in order for managers to understand the new landscape brands must now navigate. Then, they need to implement a framework to manage a brand’s social risks and to take advantage of potential opportunities. Fully embracing this responsibility changes the marketing executive’s role in a significant way: From top line revenue generation to a dual role that includes managing risks as well as returns.Published versio

Pumping Iron in the Preoperative Period: Is It Beneficial in Reducing Blood Transfusions?

Carla Patel pictured.https://openworks.mdanderson.org/aprn-week-23/1002/thumbnail.jp