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The impact of a product-harm crisis on marketing effectiveness

Abstract
Product-harm crises are among a firm’s worst nightmares. A firm may experience (i) a loss in baseline sales, (ii) a reduced own effectiveness for its marketing instruments, (iii) an increased cross sensitivity to rival firms’ marketing-mix activities, and (iv) a decreased cross impact of its marketing-mix instruments on the sales of competing, unaffected brands. We find that this quadruple jeopardy materialized in a case study of an Australian product-harm crisis faced by Kraft peanut butter. We arrive at this conclusion by using a time-varying error-correction model that quantifies the consequences of this crisis on base sales, and on own- and cross-brand short- and long-term effectiveness. The proposed modeling approach allows managers to make more informed decisions on how to regain the brands’ pre-crisis performance levels.
Type
Journal Article
Type of thesis
Series
Citation
Van Heerde, H., Helsen, K. & Dekimpe, M. (2007). The impact of a product-harm crisis on marketing effectiveness. Marketing Science, 26(2), 230-245.
Date
2007
Publisher
INFORMS
Degree
Supervisors
Rights
Publisher version