Abstract
Since crises have become an inevitable, natural feature of the business world, managing brands during crisis has also become an important source of competitive advantage. Thus, there is a growing need to understand determinants of crisis, which have become an integral part of today's world. The aim of this chapter is to explain the determinants of successful brand management during crises based on the case of Turkey. Crises may arise for various reasons, such as natural disasters, accidents, financial/political/product harm-related problems, product recall incidents, and many others. Since brands are very affected by many dynamic forces—political-economic-social and technological—brand managers need to be prepared to overcome crises without harming the brand equity. Moreover, the integration of brand management theory, which originated and was dominated by Western researchers, with recent case examples from an emerging country, constitutes the originality of the chapter. In this chapter, two boycott cases, an airplane disaster case and a product recall case, from Turkey are summarized to contribute to the existing Western literature.
TopLiterature Review
Since ancient times branding has been the only effective way to differentiate products from different providers (Aaker, 1991). Although there are numerous studies on building and managing strong brands, protecting brand equity in the presence of unstable, dynamic environment is still a major problem. Firms need better understanding of protecting their brand equity in times of crisis, and moreover develop proactive strategies.
Over the years, marketing managers experienced brand crisis varying from minor to grave crisis at some point. Besides natural disasters like earthquakes, floods, hurricanes and fires; there are several reasons that may cause crises such as; product harm, industrial accidents, transportation accidents, political conflicts, terrorism and environmental pollution incidents. Companies cannot wholly eliminate the possibility of crises therefore successful recovery from crises for a company could bring vital competitive advantage in the market place.