More from these Authors

• Supplement | HBS Case Collection | 2002 (Revised from original 2000 version)

  Building Brand Community on the Harley-Davidson Posse Ride

  Citation:

  Fournier, Susan M. "Building Brand Community on the Harley-Davidson Posse Ride." Harvard Business School Video Supplement 501-801, November 2002. (Revised from original September 2000 version.)

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• Case | HBS Case Collection | 2002 (Revised from original 2001 version)

  Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (A)

  Susan M. Fournier, Kerry Herman, Laura Winig and Andrea Carol Wojnicki

  Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSLO), a branded and integrated content and media company dedicated to "elevating the role of the homemaker," went public on October 19, 1999, creating a company with a market value of $1.73 billion, and a stake for Stewart worth $1.2 billion. Aretha Jackson, president of a private investment firm, must counsel a client on whether to invest in MSLO--a precarious prospect in light of the steady downward plunge in MSLO stock performance since the IPO. Risks outlined in the company's S-1 filing also highlighted special concerns specific to the management of the "Person-Brand." Could the company outlive Stewart? What if Stewart's reputation or image was tarnished? How, exactly, did the reputation of Stewart affect the value of the brand? Jackson must understand what meanings Martha Stewart claimed, and for whom, while also coming to grips with the meaning-management principles that applied in "managing Martha," the person and the brand. From a cultural meaning-management point of view, the person-brand context is unique in that it must consider two significant sources of meaning, both of which must be managed: 1) the public (the brand face) and 2) the private (the person face). Also considers the special meaning-management issues involved with multivocality of the brand proposition: i.e., the embodiment of multiple, and perhaps conflicting, meanings within one brand for various consumer audiences. This is an important meaning-management theme as it involves MSLO's engagements with K-Mart and the formulation of future line extension ideas.

  Citation:

  Fournier, Susan M., Kerry Herman, Laura Winig, and Andrea Carol Wojnicki. "Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (A)." Harvard Business School Case 501-080, July 2002. (Revised from original April 2001 version.)

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• Case | HBS Case Collection | 2002

  Introducing ... The XFL!

  Susan M. Fournier, Stephen A. Greyser and Seth Schulman

  When the XFL professional football league debuted on February 3, 2001, it generated a Nielsen rating of 10.1, higher than any nationally televised program in a Saturday evening time slot. The next week, ratings plummeted, and by week nine the XFL game earned the title as the lowest rated sports event in television history. Co-owners WWFE and NBC officially disbanded the XFL on May 10, 2001. What went wrong? How could two seasoned and respected figures in entertainment--WWFE's Vince McMahon and NBC's Dick Ebersol--have miscalculated so badly?

  Keywords: Advertising; Forecasting and Prediction; Product Positioning; Consumer Behavior; Product Development; Culture; Commercialization;

  Citation:

  Fournier, Susan M., Stephen A. Greyser, and Seth Schulman. "Introducing ... The XFL!" Harvard Business School Case 503-015, July 2002.

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