More from these Authors

• Technical Note | HBS Case Collection | January 2019 (Revised March 2019)

  Brand Storytelling

  Jill Avery

  Marketers have long appreciated the value and power of storytelling. Stories fill brands with resonant and relevant meaning and empower brands to serve as critical elements in the lives of consumers. Mastering the art of brand storytelling is an increasingly important part of managing brands in the contemporary brandscape, as today, we live in a world filled with an ever-expanding panoply of physical and virtual media spaces and places within which to create and tell stories with and to our consumers. This technical note outlines how and why consumers respond to brand stories, illuminates the four elements that make up good stories, discusses the use of archetypal plots and characters and other storytelling appeals, and provides guidance and a template for creating resonant, relevant, authentic, and differentiated brand stories.

  Keywords: brand communication; brand management; brand storytelling; Marketing; Marketing Communications; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Advertising; Consumer Behavior; Consumer Products Industry;

  Citation:

  Avery, Jill. "Brand Storytelling." Harvard Business School Technical Note 519-049, January 2019. (Revised March 2019.)  View Details

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• Case | HBS Case Collection | December 2017 (Revised March 2019)

  Armarium: Luxury Fashion Brands for Rent

  Jill Avery, David Fubini, Natasha Dossa and Devon Stewart

  Armarium, a two-sided online platform that offered consumers the opportunity to rent the most coveted, current season high fashion clothing and accessories from the top global luxury brands, had emerged from its first sales season with two distinct customer segments: the High Net Worth (HNW) woman and the High Earner, Not Rich Yet (HENRY) woman. As it began to scale its operations, it had to decide which customer segment was the more desirable target market and how to refine the company's value proposition to maximize value creation for both consumers and the luxury brands that supported the business model. The jury was still out on whether a rental model could attract higher income women who could afford to buy luxury brands and whether it could support the $400 rental price points Armarium would need to charge for its one-of-a-kind pieces with retail values that could reach as high as $15,000. The two founders faced significant scaling challenges, from how to establish guardrails around curation of the collection to go-to-market distribution channel strategy and customer acquisition strategy.

  Keywords: brand management; retailing; sharing economy; luxury brand; ecommerce; e-commerce; Startup; fashion; brand positioning; customer acquisition; internet marketing; social media; Marketing; Marketing Channels; Marketing Strategy; Brands and Branding; Business Startups; Luxury; Consumer Behavior; Growth and Development Strategy; Fashion Industry; Retail Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; United States; North America;

  Citation:

  Avery, Jill, David Fubini, Natasha Dossa, and Devon Stewart. "Armarium: Luxury Fashion Brands for Rent." Harvard Business School Case 518-047, December 2017. (Revised March 2019.)  View Details

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• Working Paper | HBS Working Paper Series | 2019

  Calculators for Women: When Identity Appeals Provoke Backlash

  Tami Kim, Kate Barasz, Leslie John and Michael I. Norton

  From “Chick Beer” to “Dryer sheets for Men,” identity-based labeling is frequently deployed to appeal to people who hold the targeted identity. However, five studies demonstrate that identity appeals can backfire, alienating the very individuals they aim to attract. We begin by demonstrating backlash against identity appeals in the field during the 2016 presidential election (Study 1) and in the lab (Study 2). This (in)effectiveness of identity appeals is driven by categorization threat—feeling unwillingly reduced to a single identity—which is induced when a) the identity deployed is that of a typically marginalized group (Studies 3-4) and b) the appeal evokes a stereotype about that identity (Study 5). Ironically, identity appeals often drive identity-holders away from options they would have preferred in the absence of that appeal.

  Keywords: identity; Identity; Labels; Gender; Perception;

  Citation:

  Kim, Tami, Kate Barasz, Leslie John, and Michael I. Norton. "Calculators for Women: When Identity Appeals Provoke Backlash." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 19-086, February 2019.  View Details

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