Question 1: Did the WMB brand culture exercise led by Ciara represent the beginning of a deep culture change for WMB in 2013, or was it more of a superficial marketing exercise? Explain your answer with reference to the text and relevant academic readings

Discuss about the Managing Change for Building a New Brand Culture.

Question 1: Did the WMB brand culture exercise led by Ciara represent the beginning of a deep culture change for WMB in 2013, or was it more of a superficial marketing exercise? Explain your answer with reference to the text and relevant academic readings

Answer 1: WMB brand can be seen as a story of “Glory to Gutter”, the company after tasting huge success and a great market share during 80s, 90s and early 2000s went straight into the ground because of its static marketing and business strategy. The company failed to innovate with the growing pace of the QSR (Quick Service Restaurant) on New Zealand which began after 2000. The companies tried and tested formulae using the value proposition of “Value for Money” , tasty, quick and plenty of food was replaced by plethora of restaurant opening in the city which focussed more on developing the healthy eating habits of individuals and more so because of foray of plenty of International burger chains in the city like Mc Donald. The sales of WMB were plummeting by 12% YOY which was accompanies by an increasing operational cost by 8% YOY. Thus, the company needed Change to drive the brand and make it contemporary to its times.

Ciara (Sister in Law of Bill-The founder of the stores) was pioneer in developing and building a new brand culture at WMB brand. She had worked at almost all the departments of the WMB brand and was a known face to both the management and the staff; she was working as a training manager presently at BB group. It can be said with no doubt that Ciara’s plan was the beginning of a deep culture change for WMB and not just a marketing gimmick to push the sales. The same can be established by various facts stated in the case.

Change management is the systematic process of dealing with the transition and transformation of organizational goals, process or technologies, the underlying rationale behind change management is to create strategies for effective change, controlling change and helping people to adopt the change (Doppelt, 2017). Change management is a long process and it does not occur overnight, organization has to ensure that people who will be impacted with the change management are kept in loop at all times and their feedback and recommendation are duly noted, this is done to ensure less resistance in the process of Change management process(Cameroon & Green, 2015). Ciara had a good understanding of change management and also had some experience in carrying out infrastructural and technological change in the past. Ciara knew well in advance the challenges she could face and thus involved everybody in the process of change management.

Question 2: In your opinion what aspects of the brand culture building and repositioning process should be undertaken by marketing and communications specialists and what aspects by organisation development (OD) and change management specialists? Explain your answer with reference to the text, this case study, the marketing literature and/or your own experience.

• Working towards reduction in the costs-Changing an organizational culture is one of the toughest job at hand for the leadership, this is so because culture of an organization encompasses interlocking set of goals, roles, processes, values, commitment, practices, attitudes and assumptions(Hayes, 2014). Thus, leadership has to tackle each of the factor one at a time to ensure the smooth execution of change management process (Goetsch & Davis, 2014).  The plan suggested by Quadrant 47 was based on massive marketing campaigns using both traditional and contemporary tools of marketing which had a very high cost implication as it was a nationwide campaign. Ciara had a different plan in mind which was in sync with the process of change management, going with a low risk approach with due diligence. Her new plan would save company a fortune and would be more targeted and the company would also have a backup plan to reinvent the strategy if something went wrong. The new plan suggested by her would come at 40% of the cost as that of the consulting company.
• Involving the people to overcome resistance and build positive synergies-Ciara was well averse with the risk which comes along with the process of change management, thus she created a “NO-NONSENSE” plan by bringing in all the staff and managers of the 17 stores and took their feedback and recommendation on the proposed change to improve the ailing condition of the company. If it would have been just a marketing trick, she could have easily sat down with the marketing and consulting team overnight and implemented the strategy. However, she wanted to build something deep, meaning and sustainable for the brand, hence wanted to bring in all the people together working on common objectives.
• Creation of new brand culture which was translated to Brand values- Ciara knew the WMB brand needs a complete makeover, adoption of new brand culture and a brand positioning statement which can translate into useful values for the company. Ciara was sure that the newly formed brand values will help the company in staying competitive and create a stronger brand presence in the market. The new brand values were created keeping in mind the brand culture of WMB, viz; playful, authentic and efficient customer management, traditional, quality and value with high standards of hygiene, groovy relaxing in the store atmosphere which is supported by décor, layouts and lightning, and friendly and authentic engagement with the customers to create strong brand advocacy and make them the promoters of the brand along with repeat customers. Thus, the new brand values were more than marketing, they were the imprint of how Ciara would like WMB brand to be perceived by its customers, which would help the brand in reaching business sustainability by staying competitive and evolving with the dynamics of business change.

Change management is a long and continues process and it requires strong headed people to identify, implement and execute the change in the business organization (Worley & Mohrman, 2014, p.214-224). Change is accompanied with plethora of obstacles such as resistance by the employees, not sufficient funds to carry out the change, non-consensus with the staff and many more (Gollenia, 2016). Ciara wanted to bring a change in the WBM brand and she wanted the change to be not superficial, but she wanted a deep change in the culture, hence took careful steps to execute the strategy of change implementation and execution.

Question 2: In your opinion what aspects of the brand culture building and repositioning process should be undertaken by marketing and communications specialists and what aspects by organisation development (OD) and change management specialists? Explain your answer with reference to the text, this case study, the marketing literature and/or your own experience.

Answer: Companies these days are spending a lot of money in building a strong brand culture which resonates with the customers, but a number of companies are also investing in building a brand culture which excites and inspires even their employees (Schroeder, Borgerson & Wu, 2014).  Brand culture as mentioned in an article of Forbes can be understood as the unique amalgamation of psychology, ideas, attitudes and beliefs which conveys brand behaviour which influences brand experience which leads to brand reputation (Dasgupta & Gupta, 2018, p.176-198). Building a brand culture is very important and personal to a brand. Within the purview of marketing and communication specialist the attributes for brand culture within the WMB group and other organization are:

• Defining the brand-It is very important to identify the true meaning of the brand and what it stands for (Liu, 2015,p.187). For example, WMB wanted its brand to stand for being playful, authentic, efficient customer engagement, traditional quality and hygiene with high standards of hygiene and friendly and relaxed environment creating positive brand advocacy.
• Differentiate and position the brand-It is necessary to differentiate the brand to make it stand in the highly competitive environment (Holtorf, 2016). WMB for example was initially meant for blue collared people and families for weekends. However, due to the changing business dynamics, the company differentiated the brand by polishing its old values with new values and creating a different menu all together to target the new customer audience.

• Building and exposing the brand-Brand awareness is the key to build and expose the brand to the customers or other stakeholder (Chen, 2016). WMB group has been doing so by launching a pilot programme for its 6 stores and highly targeted campaign on social media and other media vehicle.
• Personalize the brand-In order to personalize the brand, one has to create a brand identity, and this brand identity can be thus used by the customers as a way of perceiving the identity of the brand (Kim, 2017, p.117-146). This was ensured at WMB group by creating uniforms, hygiene, décor and great lightning at the restaurant.
• Review the brand-The business is evolving at a very fast pace and so the business never remains static. In such a case, a brand has to keep reviewing the brand and its strategy to keep the brand values in sync with the present times (Wheeler, 2017).

The following aspect falls within the purview of marketing and communication specialist in repositioning of the brand:

Analyse the current position of the brand-Marketing and communication strategist have to identify the brand in detail, how the brand has evolved over the time, the market share, challenges, market position, consumer behaviour and industry performance(Johns & English, 2016, p.65-72).

Consumer perception-The first and foremost thing is to understand the perception of the customers about the brand, their taste and preferences to better understand the consumer views and opinions (Reddy, Reddy & Venkatesulu, 2016, p.321-326).

Developing the repositioning strategy-The strategy here is to develop objectives, mission and vision to reposition the brand. The idea here is to set SMART objectives for the brand and focus on them to implement new brand strategy (Insch & Bowden, 2016, p.47-54).

• Keeping everyone on the same page- The biggest responsibility of the change management and OD team is to involve everyone in the process of building a new brand culture (Johnson & Grainge, 2015). WMB group did the same by calling in all the staff and store managers to consider their feedback and explain them the new brand culture.
• Imbibe the new values in the organization- Another major role here is to conduct workshop and training for the staff to make them understand the reason for the new brand culture and how they fit into the same(Kim, 2016,p.121-130). The onus here is on the organization to make the employees feel comfortable with the new brand culture and remove any resistance.
• Replacing the old with the new-Creating a new brand culture comes with plethora of added responsibilities and challenges in the way of change management (Saha, 2017). The change process helps in identifying whereas lacunae in the organization which can be in terms of human resource, technology, business process, infrastructure and many more, OD and change management specialist have to identify them and remove them if they see it as a misfit in the organization and the new brand culture. For example, the brand culture of WMB group were not going own well with number of senior staff and managers, thus they were asked to leave and in place additional staff was hired who fit into the new brand culture.

Facts citing Ciara’s deep culture change at WMB

Overcome the resistance- The first and the foremost thing which one has to do in the organization is to take everybody’s feedback on the brand repositioning strategy and work the way upward. They have to ensure that employee feedback is acknowledged, also to cater to employee’s resistance if any (Burke, 2017).

Encouragement fosters engagement- Engage the staff in the process of brand repositioning to encourage them in participating in the change management work. Employees are the biggest possible asset for the organization thus they have to be engaged at all times to build encouragement and ensure smooth transition to a new brand positioning (Cummings & Worley, 2014).

Exposing the employees to the benefits of Brand Repositioning- The change management specialists have to make the employees understand the fruits of brand repositioning to its employees. Employees on understanding the specific benefits of repositioning strategy will help them in coming up with constructive feedback which can help the organization in focussing on its repositioning strategy.

It can be thus said that it is not just the responsibility of marketing and communication specialist to work on the brand culture and the repositioning strategy, the effective usage of a specialized team of Organisational development and change management specialist is required to carry out the transition at ease. Both the teams have their own individual responsibility which they have to cater to, and to also keep the employees best interest in mind along with gradually moving towards the new organizational goals and objectives.

Question 3: Do you think that Ciara did a good job? Please explain your answer

Answer:  Wild Man Burgers was a fairly successful change back in 80s, 90s and early 2000s. It was the first choice of blue collared consumers and families on the weekends. The seating arrangement and the packaging, food quality, food offering were all in sync with the current demand of the market. However, the company failed to foresee the changing business dynamics and the possible effects it could have on the existing business of WMB burgers. The failure of the company was inevitable because of the new changed demands of the consumers, rise in healthy eating habits, entry of international players in the markets, demographic shift of urban dwellers and growth of social media marketing channels.  Ciara did a fairly decent and good job in building a brand new culture and in repositioning the brand. The evaluation of her efforts is fairly difficult to estimate at the given point in time because it takes a good amount of time to implement the change in the organization and then to evaluate the results of it. However, few points below will validate the fact that Ciara did a good job in her approach at WMB. She took care that she goes by the book while identifying the change, implementing the change and then executing it

Question 3: Do you think that Ciara did a good job? Please explain your answer

Low-Risk Piloting Approach- Quadrant 47 the management consultant which the brand hired to work on the brand building and repositioning strategy wanted to go with a full blow marketing campaigns for all the stores which would cause the organization a heavy bomb of $280,000. The cogent and prudent Ciara realized it was a wasteful expenditure and would not yield desired results. She wanted to take steps one at a time and evaluate the result of her steps and then build a new strategy. Her pilot programme was targeted first towards only 6 stores, saving huge costs for the company.

Due diligence in Brand culture change- Change does not happen overnight, more so if things are done in a haste there are chances that it would mean otherwise for the organization(Smith & Outfitters, 2017,p.93-108). Although the management wanted the change to be implemented at the earliest, Ciara on the other hand wanted to be due diligent in taking every step. Due to this, she planned changes in the culture change, infrastructure, brand and menu offering first in six selected stores. She also wanted the brand to focus more on building the brand through the usage of social media campaign which despite being cost effective can target a wide range of audience. Thus, the plan was effective and cost effective and the management was even in sync with her plan as it was 40% of the cost proposed by Quadrant 47 team.

Engaging all the stakeholders in the process of change management- Ciara had quite some experience in handling the process of change management, she knew the intricacies and the possible resistance which could come in the way of change management. Ciara created a no nonsense plan by inviting all the managers and staff to provide feedback on the proposed change in the brand culture by the management. This exercise is a very beneficial step in the process of change management and helps in winning the trust and support of the employees. Conducting the exercise Ciara was confident that she would be able to answer the specific question like “what will work?”, “what will not and why”. Thus, it can be said that Ciara was really playing by the book of change management in ensuring the change in brand culture and repositioning the brand strategy.

Foreseeing the challenges on the way of Change management-Ciara was aware that at the onset of change management she would encounter troubles, she was smart enough to identify the three fold challenges at hand, which were: Making the six store pilot program a grand success, rolling out the new brand culture in remaining 11 stores and lastly working in tandem with the consultants, head office, marketing and promotions team, acquire new customer, retain new customers and so on. Ciara developed strategies to tackle each one of these challenges one by one. This really shows the leadership of Ciara and is adaptability to the changing environment.

Creating strategies bigger than Brand communication campaign-Ciara was of the opinion that such a massive change, even though in the 6 stores of WMB was not going to be a cake walk, which could be managed by just launching an advertising campaign. She designed a change management and implementation plan encompassing organizational development, organizational transformation, change communication and brand management principles. Ciara left no loopholes in her plans, she did everything right to ensure the success of WMB store and revitalize and reinvent the entire brand to better suit the growing needs of the customer.

Towards the end it can be said that Ciara did everything possible to reinvent the brand and create a new brand culture, however, it did not go down well due to a number of colliding chains of event. Death of Will, partners fighting over the shareholding of the burger chain and few more issues were at the forefront of troubles for Ciara, due to these unexpected events, the date of implementation and execution of the stores was pushed by 6 months. However, people appreciated the new design, antiques, the vibe of the place, the sales were still plummeting. It is only time, which can tell the future of WMB. However, as far as Ciara is concerned she did a terrific job, and given an ideal set of conditions the plan would result in a grand success of the burger chain.

Question 4: If you were Ciara what would you have done differently between late 2012 and mid-2013?

Answer: With the advent of globalization and rapid change in the dynamics of Quick service restaurant after 2000s the wisdom of Bill Buckie who was in the business of burgers for 50 years was in question. The wild man burger brand image was engulfed in plummeting sales which resulted in lower market capitalization and losses for the company. The management was concern and wanted to create a strategy to make once a popular burger chain work. Ciara took the onus and responsibility to personally look into the matter and turn around the table by bringing profitability back into Wild Man Burger. Ciara did a terrific job in trying to build a new brand culture and I strongly appreciate and commend the job she did for the burger chain, but, if I were Ciara, I would have done following things differently to achieve the target:

Conducting a marketing research-The first and foremost thing which I would have done being in Ciara’s position would be conducting a market research and asking the customer directly what do they expect from Wild Man Burger and what should the burger store do in order to win back the lost market share. It is a very cogent thing to do, ask the people what do they want, based on their feedback and suggestion work towards developing and creating a new menu, ambience and look and feel of the place(Kerzner & Kerzner, 2017). Marketing research would also help in identifying what are the successful stores doing and why do they have a large footfall in their stores(Booth, 2015) Thus, Marketing research would be the first step I would have taken being in the position of Ciara.

Focussing on Customer experience- Nowhere in the case study was it mentioned on how to delight the experience of customer when he visits the store. It was just mentioned in brief about the new design, groovy and playful music with the current themed infrastructure. Customer experience on the other hand is the interaction between the organization and the customer, the customer experience is a strong focus point for the organization in order to ensure the sustainability of the revenue (Smollen, 2015, p.301-314). Ciara did not focus on engaging the customer in order to give them a delighted experience when they visit the store. In order to build customer experience the store should focus on taking and acknowledging the customer feedback, working on the feedback remove the pain points of the customers. I would have also started building a bond with the customer by providing them loyalty reward points for their association with the store. Delighted customer will help the brand to grow by becoming their positive brand advocates.

Creating a team of specialist to carry out the process of change management- Ciara took the entire onus on her because she had the experience of working at different layers of the management and was the best person suited for the change management. In my opinion, I would have gone ahead by creating a team of executives who would focus specifically on the process of change management and I would have overlooked the same and created new strategies to further reinvent the brand and ensure adoption of brand culture in the organization. The team with focussed attention on change management would be highly efficient in ensuring the change transformation and I could focus on working towards adoption of the change management.

Engaging the workforce- Workforce engagement in change management process is a must and should to ensure the effectiveness of the change management process and also to ensure that resistance from the workforce is kept at minimum. Ciara had limited interaction with the managers and staff when she contacted them to ask their recommendation on proposed changes. However, a deeper and an enhanced involvement are required to carry out the change management process. Employees are always susceptible of change and are scared of it, thus it is advisable to do away their fears and help them in understanding the rationale behind bringing the change in the organization. Better and openness in communication is another way by which I could have addressed the store staff and made them be a part of the change management process. It is a known fact that team work helps in building positive synergies which help in achieving the smart objectives and goals for the organization.

Creating brand Awareness-Ciara went ahead with limited social marketing campaign to drive the brand awareness regarding the proposed change in the store of Wild man burger, however the strategy was not comprehensive in execution, I would have gone ahead with the AIDA model in creating good brand awareness and driving result out of the same. The model is really helpful strategy in creating a cohesive brand strategy for increasing the brand awareness.

A-Getting the attention of the target group audience on the proposed new change is extremely important. In order to do so, the store has to focus on techniques like creating social media advertisement, targeting the desired demographics, creating display ads to further gain the attention of the target audience.

I-Creating interest in the target audience on the new store outlet with new menu, infrastructure, facilities like Wi-Fi, usage of groovy music in sync with the target audience has to be conveyed in this step to ensure that the target audience has an interest/desire to associate with the new store of WMB. This can be ensured by the usage of Remarketing, Search engine optimization on Google, Usage of ad words on Google and social media marketing.

D-After getting the attention of the target audience and generating interest in the target audience to about the store, the next logical step is to device strategies to create inherent desire in them to come to the store. Customer acquisition strategy falls into this step, in order to do so, email marketing, blogs on the store; usage of food bloggers to create desire in the target group has to be followed.

A-The last step of the AIDA model is to give the customer an option of “Action to Call” through the highly targeted advertising campaign on the social media and food ordering applications. The usage of contemporary technologies will help the store in coming in contact with the millennial generation which is the Prime TG of the burger store. To bring in the initial footfall, the store can use options like 30% discount on the first order, giving a free burger with a meal or something like this. This can be done with the use of social media and marketing automation.

All the above steps would ensure that a systematic process is followed to create brand awareness and steps are taken to ensure that the customers come to the store.

These are all the things I would have ensured doing if I would have been in place of Ciara, however, there are no two doubts that she did a terrific job in reviving the brand culture and brand positioning on the Wild Man Burger store. 

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