The
mission of the Emory Marketing Institute is to support rigorous
research that improves brand-driven business performance. Our
focus in this effort is to fund research that results in new insights,
frameworks, and methodologies for managing brand value.
The
Institute's primary research priorities include the categories
of brand finance, private label brand interactions, brand dynamics,
and response models. We also focus on research efforts outside
the traditionally CPG (consumer packaged goods) domain to include
B2B brands, service brands, and technology brands.
Research
Topics
We
conduct research in the following areas:
Traditionally,
consumer packaged goods (CPG) issues have dominated academic research
on brands. Brands represent the full value delivered to the customer.
In essence, the brand conveys information about the intangible
components of an offer. As such the potential impact of branding
in non-CPG markets such as business-to-business (B2B), services,
and technology is high due to the great intangibility of the underlying
offer. We seek to fill in the vacuum in academic research in these
industries.
Brand
Finance
Traditionally, the important assets in a business have been thought
of as tangible. These assets such as land and the capital equipment
are on the balance sheet and are managed with metrics like 'return
on assets.' Over the last century we have seen a change in the
value creation centers of companies shift from the tangible to
the intangible. With relative ease these days in access to capital,
the value of tangible assets is readily imitated by the competition,
meaning the value to the firm is minimized. The true locus of
value creation in firms today is rooted in the off balance sheet
intangibles. This includes the value of intellectual property,
know-how, customer relations, partner relations, and the firm's
brands. The words of wisdom "what is measured gets managed"
holds true for these intangible assets. However, the problem is
since these intangibles are often not measured their value is
indeterminate. And if you do not know the value of an asset how
can you manage it? We are leading the effort to develop insights
and tools in brand finance to alleviate this predicament.
Private
Label Brand Interactions
Private label and national brand interactions are an increasingly
important area of concern for B2C. Private label brands grew phenomenally
in the 1990's. From a humble start as generic goods (bold black
type on a white package) private label brands have expanded throughout
numerous product categories and represent better quality than
ever before. Some private label retailers contract with OEMs,
and others are even backward integrating. Private label goes beyond
the arena of consumer packaged goods to include pharmaceuticals,
and technology goods. In the personal computer market 'white boxes',
named for the non-branded carton they are shipped in, make up
an estimated 25% of the market. There are many interesting business
questions to answer with regard to private label brands. What
are the reason for success of private label in certain categories
and not others? How do the private label brand managers view the
rules of competition? What should national brands be doing to
best compete in this new mixed competitive environment? When should
national brands also license their goods to private label brands?
How should private label brands position against national brand?
Brand
Dynamics
The product lifecycle model is a helpful construct to frame branding
issues. Of course, not all brands follow the full product cycle,
such as fads like the cabbage patch doll. However, many brands
do face different challenges in various phases covering launch,
growth, maturity, and revitalization and end of life. ZIBS actively
seeks to support research that develops insights or methodologies
for better managing brands across the lifecycle for persistently
superior performance.
Response
Models
A competitive market involves a complex array of interacting functions.
Response models translate that rich environment into mathematical
equations in an effort to optimize the results of marketing initiatives.
This includes taking variable such as marketing mix contributions,
competitive actions, environmental variables, and consumer response
into account to build a frameworks that simulate reality. These
models in effect help support objective-based decision making.
ZIBS supports the development of new modeling techniques that
better simulate actual market outcomes.
B2B
Business-to-Business (B2B) brands are those that represent goods
consumed or transformed ultimately into consumer goods. Some B2B
goods are found as ingredients in retail (B2C) goods. Others manifest
within the realm of social goods. For example, a new non-lethal
stopping weapon purchased by the police force becomes a "safety
and protection service" for society. Some B2B brands are
passed through to the end consumer relatively unchanged, such
as pharmaceuticals. Within each of these categories there are
unique research questions awaiting investigation.
Services
Service markets, especially health services and the FIRE industries
(finance, insurance and real estate) are particularly attractive
industries for utilizing effective brand strategy. And the airline
business is an example of where brand value is often tepidly applied.
However, since most of the framing in academic research has focused
on consumer packaged goods, brand managers in the service industries
are often flying by imprecise intuition. ZIBS intends to drive
robust investigations into service brand management.
Technology
Whose life has not been transformed by technology? We wake up,
get to work, support our jobs, work out in the gym, and travel
on our vacations all with the massive support of technology, whether
hidden or overt. The pace of change in high tech markets is dizzyingly
rapid and by its nature it is often driven by highly intelligent
engineers who often misunderstand the role of brands and thus
drive their businesses swiftly into the ground. Some tech brands
"get it". Microsoft and Intel are two of the most valuable
brands in the world. And Apple has a community that rivals Harley
Davidson in its enthusiasm. Yet there is great potential to help
a multitude of technology business by developing insights and
knowledge about how to build brands in this uniquely challenging
environment.
Proposals
Overview
The Institute operates on a continuous proposal cycle. For submissions
we favor an approach similar to that of the Marketing Science
Institute.
The basic approach is as follows:
Send
us a Research Brief. This is an informal one to three page note,
or attachment (in MS Word, Acrobat, or RTF) including:
1. The nature of the research. This explains what you intend to
do.
2. Its likely impact on practice. Focus on viable actions for
real world problems.
3. Its likely academic impact.
4. Level of funding and proposed use of funds
Based
on the information provided in the Research Brief, one of the
following outcomes will result:
1. The research will be accepted and awarded a grant for partial
or full support.
2. An Institute representative, likely the Director of Research
or Director of Academic Programs, will work with you to fine tune
your proposal to fit within the objectives of the Institute.
3. The proposal will be declined for funding by the Institute.
The
Institute does not provide unrestricted grants. It does provide
for expense reimbursement covering expenses such as cost incurred
for travel related to presentation of research findings (to events
held by the Institute or third parties), data collection costs,
direct research assistant costs, data acquisition, resource acquisition,
and the like. Grants for research can range up to $20,000. We
judge the costs against the benefit of the research. Therefore,
it is extremely important for you to detail what impact the research
will have on practice.
Deadlines
The
Institute accepts proposals year round from faculty and graduate
students. A faculty member needs to be the lead researcher for
these proposals, but doctoral students may serve as members on
the investigation team. In addition, the Institute extends specific
calls for proposal, such as through its Doctoral Award Competition.
These specific calls for proposal have associated announced deadlines.
Doctoral students should request the latest call for proposal
and submission guidelines. The Institute does not provide for
faculty salary supplements at this time.
Proposal
Process
Preliminary
Qualification Researchers are welcome to contact the Institute prior
to submitting a proposal. The Director of Programs can help guide
you on issues such as availably of funding and determine whether
the topic is within Institute's scope of activity. Contact
us if you have questions.
Research
Proposal Brief
The research proposal brief should be just that, a concise overview
of the project. The project brief should be one to three pages
in length.
Each
proposal should contain:
1. Research Overview: An overview of the research and
what you intend to do. 2. Practice Impact: A description of the impact of this
research on business practice. Try to be specific as possible
in terms of how to measure the short term and long term impact,
while retaining the goal of concision. 3. Academic Orientation: A discussion of how this research
fits within academic theory. Describe your theory, set of propositions,
and how they relate to previously published work. 4. Research Methods: Discuss the methodology of the research,
and the schedule for completion. What is your source of data,
data collection method, and your analysis techniques? 5. Support Requirements: Do provide the budget for your
request. Indicate your level of need for Institute support.
Do specify your requirements for funding from the Institute,
and for data access from the Institute or Institute's partners.
The Institute does maintain relationships with providers of
syndicated scanner data, providers with primary research capabilities,
and company originated data. If there is specific data required
for your project we are able to build relationships with research
agency partners or specific companies on an as needed basis.
6. People Involved: Identify the lead investigator, and
research team. The lead investigator needs to be a faculty member.
Specifically include name, organization, and contact info (email,
telephone, fax, postal and web address).
It
is assumed the Lead Investigator is a full-time faculty member.
Graduate students are invited to enter the Doctoral Award Competition,
and graduate students may be given consideration for other calls
for proposal.
Researcher
Commitment
In association with the Institute support, the researcher is agreeing
to a specific level of responsibility.
1. The Institute reports periodically on its research in progress.
You are required to complete requests for updates in a timely
manner.
2. One or more working papers must be contributed to the Institute's
working paper series for distribution to our corporate partners
via our web site. We request working papers to be provided in
Microsoft Word format. Work published as a working paper is NOT
precluded from publication in an academic journal.
3. If using human subjects in your research, you must adhere to
the requirements of your institution.
4. The Emory Marketing Institute must be credited in any publication
based on this research. The Institute will make document templates,
presentation templates and logos available for use. The credit
in third party publication should read "The author(s) acknowledge
the support of the Institute.
5. The Institute requires notification of publication. Do provide
reprints of the articles published based on the research supported.
Research
Proposal Submissions
Submissions
should be directed to:
Greg
Thomas
Director of Programs, Emory Marketing Institute
Emory
University
1300 Clifton Road, Atlanta, GA 30322
Tel: 404 727-4613
Submissions
should be made in Microsoft Word (DOC), Adobe Acrobat (PDF), or
Rich Text Format (RTF). Decisions
on submissions are generally made within six weeks of submission.
This time may vary based on the number of proposals being submitted
concurrently.
Working
Papers
Funding
Support
It
is the goal of the Institute to advance the knowledge about brand-driven
business performance and to disseminate research findings into
the practitioner and academic communities. In addition to supporting
working papers based on Institute-funded research, the Institute
actively seeks to support the dissemination of research in progress
which is not funded by the Institute. In support of this goal
the Institute provides researchers with grants that subsidize
event attendance for presenting research findings.
How
to Apply
To apply for funding, send an electronic copy of your working
paper to greg@emorymi.com. The paper will be reviewed by the Institute
and selected based on:
Fit
with the Institute's research priorities
Quality
of research
Quality
of exposition
Impact
of the findings on the Institute's community
The
Director of Research will send a letter of acceptance or declination,
generally within a period of two weeks of the receipt of the paper.
If
the paper is accepted, the Institute has the non-exclusive right
to issue the paper in its working series, in both print and electronic
form. The Institute also has the right to publish a summary of
the paper in its communications. We do not restrict you from publishing
the paper elsewhere, unless otherwise agreed. If the paper is
published in an academic journal you agree to acknowledge the
Emory Marketing Institute as a partial sponsor of the work, and
need to provide us with a published version.
Research
Contact
Greg
Thomas Director of Programs
Emory Marketing Institute
Emory University
1300 Clifton Road, Atlanta, GA 30322
Phone : +1 (404) 727-4613
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