Questions:
1.Did the WMB brand culture exercise led by Ciara represent the beginning of a deep culture change for WMB in 2013, or was it more of a superficial marketing exercise? Explain your answer with reference to the text and relevant academic readings.
2.In your opinion what aspects of the brand culture building and repositioning process should be undertaken by marketing and communications specialists and what aspects by organisation development (OD) and change management specialists? Explain your answer with reference to the text, this case study, the marketing literature and/or your own experience.
3.Do you think that Ciara did a good job? Please explain your answer.
4.If you were Ciara what would you have done differently between late 2012 and mid-2013?
1.According to case study, Ciara (sister in law of Bill and the founder of all stores) was responsible for developing new and fresh brand culture at WMB Brand. She was currently working in training and development department at BB Group and she was capable enough to handle both, management as well as staff members at WMB brand. Apart from this, Ciara was also a known face for all the departments at WMB brand which helped her to develop new and fresh brand culture at the WMB stores. Thus, it could easily be said that functions of Ciara was directly linked with developing a unique and effective culture in relevance with the marketing strategies in order to enhance sales. This could also be understood with other facts given in the case study.
Every organization requires change in its policies, standards, operations as well as in the product and service offerings so that the target audiences’ demands could be fulfilled along with fulfilling the requirements of dynamic business environment. Change management is an effective procedure for every organization and in relation to this, it could be analysed that change management is not an overnight procedure, it requires appropriate time and planning so that the desired goals and outcomes could be attained. Along with this, it should be ensured that the people who will be impacted through the implementation of change are involved in the procedure of change management. Involving employees in the change management process will boost up the confidence amongst employees along with ensuring less resistance in relation with change management process. According to previous work experience of Ciara, she has appropriate knowledge regarding change management through which she could easily and effectively enhance efficiency of WMB stores and as she involved every member who will be affected through change management process in order to face challenges and issues related to the change management process (Cameron & Green, 2015).
Answers:
Facts which cite Ciara’s deep culture change at WMB:
- Reducing cost: Organizational change is one of the hardest jobs for leaders because culture sets the parameters for an organization in relation with setting goals, roles for employees, values of organization, and assumptions made by the management for longer period of time so that the goals could be attained in an effective manner. It is the duty and responsibility of leaders in the organization to tackle every factor which could affect change management process along with ensuring the positive outcomes (Doppelt, 2017).
With regards to this, Quadrant 47 suggested an effective marketing plan which includes all traditional as well as contemporary tools of marketing. This plan ensures that organizational desired goals and objectives will be attained but it also requires huge involvement of cost. On the other hand, Ciara proposed a different marketing plan which also relates to the change management process. Her plan was more efficient as compared to the plan suggested by Quadrant 47 because it includes backup plan through which risk factors could be mitigated and on top of that, her plan was 40% cheap as compared to the plan suggested by consultancy group (Belias & Koustelios, 2014).
- Involvement of people: In relation with controlling the consequences of after implementation of change management process, Ciara only involved the marketing team who was required as per the marketing plan and marketing team plays the crucial part in boosting up organizational sales. Ciara does not invite other employees of all stores to ask their views and feedback regarding implementation of change. This helps Ciara to manage change management procedure in an effective manner along with accomplishment of the task so that organizational efficiency could be enhanced (Alvesson & Sveningsson, 2015).
- New culture with new brand values: WMB brand was requiring new culture with new values in order to develop an effective and appropriate image in the competitive business environment. Thus, Ciara adopted completely new and advanced model for setting up new brand culture which could extract positive outcomes for the organization. Ciara knows that new and effective organizational culture was required for uplifting WMB store’s performance in the competitive business environment. Customer engagement, standards and parameters for improving quality of food, etc. values were considered while developing and adopting new culture for staying in competitive position in the marketplace (Singh, Kalafatis & Ledden, 2014).
2.As per the recent business trends, various companies irrespective of their nature are spending huge amount in developing brand image for satisfying customer’s needs whereas, there are various companies who have adopted brand culture in consideration towards meeting with their employees’ needs. Developing an effective brand culture is significant for the organization and in relation to the WMB group, certain attributes of brand culture are:
- Brand: Realising the significance of brand and usage of brand is necessary because it helps to create effective brand culture. With regards to the WMB group, meaning of brand culture is enhancing customer engagement, realistic, enhancing standards for hygiene and quality of food which will delivered and brand advocacy (Sharma & Shah, 2017).
- Positioning the brand:Brand positioning is an essential element to stand aside from the competitors. WMB group was used to serve blue collared people and it was also meant for families. But with the effect of change at workplace, business dynamics got changed and to match up with those values, organization amended its standards, policies and measures so that the all new menu ranges could be set up with the objective to enlarging customer segment.
- Building brand: Building brand will help the organization to attract customers as well as stakeholders. Thus, WMB group has adopted pilot program for initial period of time for 6 stores along with effective social media strategies (Han & Hyun, 2015).
- Making brand personalised: Making brand personalised is bit difficult task because it requires maintaining brand identity through which customers could determine the significance of the brand. In relation with creating brand identity, organization focused over food quality, hygiene and other crucial attributes (Kuuru & Tuominen, 2016).
- Reviewing brand: Riving the brand means determining the effectiveness of the brand value at certain point of time. With regards to this, it is necessary for the organization to constantly change its functionalities so that the current business environment’s requirements could be fulfilled along with maintaining an effective brand image.
Apart from these attributes, it is necessary for the organization to develop an effective plan for marketing and communication so that brand could be repositioned. Following are aspects needs to be recognised:
- Determining current value of brand: Before developing marketing and communication plan, it is required for the organization to analyse the current effectiveness of brand in the market along with the challenges, market position, market share, etc. attributes.
- View of consumers: It is crucial aspect for an organization to determine its target audience’s demands, preferences and tastes so that the plans could be made with the objective of fulfilment of those needs (Keller, 2016).
Along with these aspects, organization is required to set up its goals, objectives, and mission and vision so that an effective brand positioning along with new brand strategy could be developed.
Role of organization development and change management specialists in building brand culture:
- Involvement: Major responsibility of organization development (OD) and change management specialists is to involve each and every employee who will be impacted with developing new brand culture. Regards to this process, WMB group analysed the significance of brand culture and to develop an effective brand culture, organization invites every member of the store along with the store managers to share their views and valuable feedbacks which could help the OD and change management specialists to develop an effective brand culture (West, Ford & Ibrahim, 2015).
- Implementation of value: Apart from the people who will be impacted with the implementation of new brand culture, other organizational members should also be informed regarding the change management. Along with this, it is required for the management to provide appropriate training measures to the employees so that the goals and objectives in relation with the new brand culture could be attained in an effective manner (Davcik & Sharma, 2016).
- Replacement of old techniques and values with new values: Change management always leads to certain issues and challenges for the organization because new techniques adopted in the change management process are completely different from the old techniques and old brand culture. Thus, management of WMB group is required to adopt appropriate strategies so that the new techniques’ effectiveness and usage could be explained to every member of all stores. This will ensure the management to get positive outcomes along with attaining competitive advantage in the target market (Chavez-Diaz, Rojas & Orozco, 2015).
Role of organization development and change management specialists in brand repositioning
- Ensuring less resistance: Before adopting brand repositioning strategy, it is required to analyse the feedbacks and views of employees towards adaptation of strategy. This is necessary in relevance with the ensuring the compatibility between employees’ expectations and the adaptation of brand repositioning strategy. Along with this, managers will also acknowledge resistance from employees in relevance with the brand repositioning strategy, if any.
- Employee engagement: If employees will be engaged in the brand repositioning and change management process, they will feel motivated along with this; it will also help the organization to gain large number of reviews and feedbacks so that an effective brand repositioning could be implemented (Lasserre, 2017).
- Explaining the benefits of brand repositioning: It is necessary for the management of organization to explain benefits of the brand repositioning strategies to the employees. This will help the employees to manage its efficiency along with involving the employees to get more positive results. Feedbacks obtained from the employees will help the organization to meet with the requirements of strategies adopted by the organization along with developing alignment between the requirements of organizational objectives in correlation with the employees’ efficiency (Reddy, Reddy & Venkatesulu, 2016).
3.WMB i.e. Wild Man Burgers was a successful chain till late 2000s. It was one of the primary preferences for blue collared people and families. The major reason behind this was the quality served along with the taste and varieties of food items in relation with the different segments of customers. But with the passing time, changing business trends and dynamic customer requirements, organization did not changed its plans and policies due to which organizational image gets affected. This affected demand and the requirement of organizational products which reduces revenues as well as profitability (Johns & English, 2016).
Reviewing all these, Ciara decided to adopt an effective brand culture so that the brand could repositioned in the market. In order to establish an effective image in the competitive business environment, Ciara did a great job in approaching towards the change required at WMB. Following approaches included in the plan made by Ciara regards to the brand repositioning:
Facts which cite Ciara’s deep culture change at WMB:
Low risk piloting approach: Quadrant 47 consultancy was hired to develop an effective brand repositioning strategy with regards to the organizational policies and standards so that organization could regain its image in the target market. With regards to this, Quadrant 47 provided approximately expense of $280,000. Reviewing this, Ciara determined that the cost is wasteful and to enhance the demand of organizational products as well as to establish an effective image in the competitive business environment, she developed an effective as well as advanced level of branding strategy with the objective of establishing brand repositioning strategy (Jeon, et. al., 2014).
Diligence in brand culture change: Change management is not an overnight implementation technique. It requires appropriate time, planning as well as appropriate strategies to obtain effective outcomes. Ciara planned the change management with regards to culture change, infrastructure, brand and menu offering first in six selected stores so that the lost position could be regained (Blackston, 2018).
Involving stakeholders: Along with adopting new and effective measures for developing an efficient brand repositioning strategy, Ciara invites all the required members for implementing change management in order to reduce the chances of resistance from employees and if there would be any resistances, at the time of discussion, it could be mitigated with the objective of enhancing organizational efficiency along with boosting up the opportunities for gaining positive outcomes.
Capability of predicting challenges, issues and risks: Ciara was capable enough to encounter all the challenges, issues and risks which could be generated due to implementation of the change management. Change management is not an easy process, thus, it required for every organization predict each and every challenge which could be arise due to the implementation of strategy. Prediction made by Ciara revealed her effective leadership skills in relation with the implementation of change management (Chan, Boksem & Smidts, 2018).
Development of effective strategies with regards to the brand communication plan: Ciara’s leadership skills could be determined through her effective planning for implementation of change management plan. She also recognised that pilot program launched for six stores in the first phase will only be effective if an advertising and promotional campaign will be implemented (Solomon, et. al., 2014).
4.Reviewing the continuous decrease in the performance of WMB group, Ciara took responsibility on her shoulders in order to regain the organizational lost position. Major attractions of her plans were development of effective brand culture and brand repositioning strategies. Reviewing these techniques and actions by Ciara, I appreciate her efforts for WMB which was suffering from negative phase. But I were Ciara, I would have done following things:
- Executing market research: With the help of market research, I would have tried to determine target audiences’ demand, preferences and tastes so that appropriate strategies could be adopted in relation with the fulfilment. Restaurant and fast food industry is growing and expanding rapidly, thus, people have received various and unique product offerings in relation with satisfying large customer segment’s needs. Hence, market research would have provided me sufficient information in relation with the current marketing trends along with the customer segments’ demands (Brace, 2018).
- Customer satisfaction & experience: In terms of restaurant industry, customer have crucial role. Thus, it is important for the restaurants and fast food industries to maintain their primary focus over customer experience as well as towards enhancing customer satisfaction. I would have suggested the WMB group to put customer satisfaction on top of the list in order to set up effective reliable position amongst them towards WMB. This is necessary in relation with the upliftment of organizational image because reviews and feedbacks provided from the customers are the most crucial elements for enlarging customer base (Price, Wrigley & Straker, 2015).
- Brand awareness: Brand awareness is another crucial segment which I should have added in my strategies list. The more an organization will spread awareness amongst the target audience, the more demand will be increased for the organizational products and services. In relation with this, I should have adopted trending digital media strategies along with social media, email marketing techniques, and certain effective traditional media techniques with regards to spread awareness for the brand amongst the target audience (Hill & Brierley, 2017).
2. Aspects of brand culture building and repositioning process:
References
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Belias, D. and Koustelios, A., 2014. The impact of leadership and change management strategy on organizational culture. European Scientific Journal, ESJ, 10(7).
Blackston, M., 2018. Brand Love is not Enough: A Theory of Consumer Brand Relationships in Practice. Routledge.
Brace, I., 2018. Questionnaire design: How to plan, structure and write survey material for effective market research. Kogan Page Publishers.
Cameron, E. and Green, M., 2015. Making sense of change management: A complete guide to the models, tools and techniques of organizational change. Kogan Page Publishers.
Chan, H.Y., Boksem, M. and Smidts, A., 2018. Neural profiling of brands: Mapping brand image in consumers’ brains with visual templates. Journal of Marketing Research.
Chavez-Diaz, L., Rojas, O. and Orozco, F., 2015. Factors for a customer satisfaction index applied to the Mexican restaurant industry: A partial least squares-path modeling approach. In International Interdisciplinary Business-Economics Advancement Conference (p. 154).
Davcik, N.S. and Sharma, P., 2016. Marketing resources, performance, and competitive advantage: A review and future research directions. Journal of Business Research, 69(12), pp.5547-5552.
Doppelt, B., 2017. Leading change toward sustainability: A change-management guide for business, government and civil society. Routledge.
Han, H. and Hyun, S.S., 2015. Customer retention in the medical tourism industry: Impact of quality, satisfaction, trust, and price reasonableness. Tourism Management, 46, pp.20-29.
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West, D.C., Ford, J. and Ibrahim, E., 2015. Strategic marketing: creating competitive advantage. Oxford University Press, USA
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