Abstract

This is a collection of three caselets that explore how three well-known companies (across three different industries) harnessed the power of online communities in brand building and market development. The first caselet deals with athletic footwear giant Nike Inc., which created an online community as part of its Joga Bonita campaign for the FIFA World Cup 2006. This campaign helped it to ambush market its products in the high profile sporting event even though it was shut out of most of the traditional media by the official sponsor Adidas. The second caselet deals with the two online word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing programs of consumer goods giant P&G. While Tremors was an online community for teenagers, Vocalpoint was an online community for moms. Though these were controversial, both the online communities were very effective in increasing the sales of P&G’s products. The third caselet deals with broadcaster ABC’s integrated marketing campaign (IMC) for its TV drama series, Lost. The IMC comprised of traditional and emerging medias, such as, mobile marketing, web-based alternative reality games, etc. The buzz generated due to Lost helped to create a number of online communities which brought in a wider audience for the series.

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

• Appreciate the importance of new and emerging media in view of the change in environment, and media consumption behavior of the target audience Understand the pros and cons of using online communities in brand building and market development Understand ho

Keywords

Nike Inc, Procter & Gamble, ABC Entertainment, Joga Bonito, Consumer behavior, Online community, Social networking, Ambush marketing, FIFA World Cup, Advertising , Creativity, Joga.com, Internet TV, Branding , Integrated marketing campaign, Tremor, Vocalpoint, Word-of-mouth marketing, Buzz marketing, Ethics, Advertising, The Lost Experience, Alternative reality game, Lifestyle brand, Cult brand