Co-Creation and Media Business: The Value Creation in a Brand Licensing Case: An Abstract

Abstract

Since the massification of the Internet and digital platforms, printed media outlets around the world began to register what Anderson, Bell, and Shirky (2013) call postindustrial journalism. This work proposes to verify how the creation of value of potential advertisers occurs in a situation of brand licensing with a printed media outlet, considering the service-dominant logic (SDL) (Vargo and Lusch 2004). Formed by 11 foundational premises (FPs) and 5 axioms (Vargo and Lusch 2016), the service-dominant logic (SD logic) focuses on the marketing centered on service (as process). It implies interaction and unity among the beneficiaries. It also suggests a focus on working together to create mutual value. Stakeholders are seen as generic actors (Vargo and Lusch 2011) and are connected in actor-to-actor (A2A) networks, which evolve to a service ecosystem concept. For the SD logic, the value co-creation is based on the participation of all actors, which integrate resources, and enabled and constrained by institutions (as rules), perceiving the value on context in use (Vargo et al. 2008; Chandler and Vargo 2011). As its central goal, this paper aims to investigate how the creation of value by potential advertisers of printed media outlets in a brand licensing case occurs from a service-dominant logic. For this, we chose a qualitative-exploratory research, with the application of a case study (Yin 2015) for an empirical analysis. Three interviews were carried out with managers from printed media outlet and from a partner company, directly involved in the project. Weekly published by the newspaper Zero Hora—one of the five most popular quality papers in Brazil—Donna Magazine, a publication aimed at the female audience, has suffered a significant restructuring since 2012, when it was transformed in business nucleus. From there, it started working with side business, among them, brand licensing product lines. “Donna by Charlie Brownie,” a project that consisted of selling brownie kits during Easter and Mother’s Day in 2016, was one of them. Created in 2014, based in Porto Alegre, a metropolis located in the South of Brazil, the brownie store Charlie Brownie has had a partnership with Donna Magazine since it was founded, especially in the participation of events. In February 2016, about 2 months before Easter, the business nucleus talked to the candy store to propose the creation of a line with brand licensing. The proposal was accepted, and both companies worked together to develop a kit with three different models of presentable packaging, which were composed of pieces of brownie and a small decorative frame. In summary, the business model of licensed products adopted by Donna Magazine consists of dividing the profits of the products sold with the partner company. Charlie Brownie was responsible for the development of the product (work is done internally and with a partner design company) and for the commercialization of the kits, while Donna participated with the dissemination of the line through its printed and digital platforms. References Available Upon Request