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• Teaching Note | HBS Case Collection | June 2020

  Understanding the Brand Equity of Nestlé Crunch Bar

  Jill Avery and Gerald Zaltman

  In early 2018, Nestlé announced the sale of its U.S. candy-making division and a select collection of twenty of its confectionery brands, including the Nestlé Crunch Bar, to Ferrero SpA for $2.8 billion. Under the terms of the Nestlé acquisition, each of the purchased confectionery brands was permitted to use the Nestlé parent brand name for one year after the close of the sale. After that time, the Nestlé Crunch Bar would be rebranded as Crunch Bar with an endorsement from its new parent brand, Ferrara Candy Company, a division of Ferrero SpA. As the Nestlé Crunch Bar brand transitioned to its new owners, it was time for some serious brand analysis to assess its brand equity and plot a course for its future growth. How strong/weak was the brand? What were its sources of brand equity that could be leveraged in brand storytelling? Which types of messages might attract new consumers to the brand and what might work to cause infrequent users to purchase more often? Did the product itself need to be changed? Were there brand extension possibilities? Luckily, an old consumer research study on the Nestlé Crunch Bar conducted by Professor Gerald Zaltman was found on the shelves at Harvard Business School. The study used an innovative market research methodology developed by Professor Zaltman, the Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET), which had proven to be useful to brand managers hoping to better assess and understand their brands. The research methodology and raw data from Professor Zaltman’s ZMET study on the Nestlé Crunch Bar are presented in the case as tools to help students assess and understand the brand equity of the Nestlé Crunch Bar and map its future strategic course.

  Keywords: marketing; brands and branding; brand management; brand storytelling; Brand equity; Market research; qualitative methods;

  Citation:

  Avery, Jill, and Gerald Zaltman. "Understanding the Brand Equity of Nestlé Crunch Bar." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 520-124, June 2020.  View Details

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• Article | Journal of Marketing

  A Theories-in-Use Approach to Building Marketing Theory

  G. Zaltman, Valarie A. Zeithaml, Bernard Jaworski, Ajay K. Kohli, Kapil R. Tuli and Wolfgang Ulaga

  This article’s objective is to inspire and provide guidance on the development of marketing knowledge based on the theories-in-use (TIU) approach. The authors begin with a description of the TIU approach and compare it with other inductive and deductive research approaches. The benefits of engaging in TIU-based research are discussed, including the development of novel organic marketing theories and the opportunity to cocreate relevant marketing knowledge with practitioners. Next, they review criteria for selecting research questions that are particularly well suited for examination with TIU-based research. This is followed by detailed suggestions for TIU research: focusing on developing new constructs, theoretical propositions (involving antecedents, moderators, and consequences), and arguments for justifying theoretical propositions. A discussion of TIU tradecraft skills, validity checks, and limitations follows. The authors close with a discussion of future theory-building opportunities using the TIU approach.

  Keywords: building theory; grounded theory; theories-in-use; theory construction; theory development; Marketing; Knowledge; Theory;

  Citation:

  Zaltman, G., Valarie A. Zeithaml, Bernard Jaworski, Ajay K. Kohli, Kapil R. Tuli, and Wolfgang Ulaga. "A Theories-in-Use Approach to Building Marketing Theory." Journal of Marketing 84, no. 1 (January 2020): 32–51.  View Details

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• Supplement | HBS Case Collection | January 2019

  Understanding the Brand Equity of Nestlé Crunch Bar (B): Data Analysis

  Jill Avery and Gerald Zaltman

  In early 2018, Nestlé announced the sale of its U.S. candy-making division and a select collection of 20 of its confectionery brands, including the Nestlé Crunch Bar, to Ferrero SpA for $2.8 billion. Luckily, an old consumer research study on the Nestlé Crunch Bar conducted by Professor Gerald Zaltman was found on the shelves at Harvard Business School. The study used an innovative market research methodology developed by Professor Zaltman, the Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET), which had proven to be useful to brand managers hoping to better assess and understand their brands. The research methodology and raw data from Professor Zaltman’s ZMET study on the Nestlé Crunch Bar are presented in the (A) case to help students assess and understand the brand equity of the Nestlé Crunch Bar and map its future strategic course.
  
  In this (B) case, the data from the study is analyzed and an executive summary of the results is presented to guide brand management decision-making.

  Keywords: brand management; Market research; brand positioning; value proposition; consumer products; Fast moving consumer goods; qualitative methods; Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique; ZMET; data analysis; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Brands and Branding; Consumer Behavior; Marketing Communications; Data and Data Sets; Analysis; Consumer Products Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Advertising Industry; United States; North America; Italy;

  Citation:

  Avery, Jill, and Gerald Zaltman. "Understanding the Brand Equity of Nestlé Crunch Bar (B): Data Analysis." Harvard Business School Supplement 519-062, January 2019.  View Details

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