JBL × Doja Cat: Branding Through Culture-Making

In 2022, Doja Cat walked the red carpet for the sixty-fourth annual Grammy Awards in Las Vegas, Nevada, wearing a blinged-out JBL speaker as her only accessory. Chris Epple, vice president of marketing in the lifestyle division of JBL’s parent company, Harman International Industries Inc. (Harman), had realized a huge win with the Doja Cat collaboration. A year after the Grammy Awards, in March 2023, Epple contemplated what was next. He knew this had been the right partnership at the right time, but his greatest concern now was maintaining the social media buzz and continuing to build community around the brand. He wondered how JBL should manage future partnerships and collaborations to keep its target Generation Z consumers engaged and the brand story relevant.

This case, suitable for both post-graduate and undergraduate classes, was developed to help students understand how brands use storytelling to create value for consumers. It is best used as part of an introductory course on marketing or branding or as part of a course module on marketing, digital marketing, and branding. It may also be used in marketing courses where branding is taught. It highlights the adoption of social media marketing tools in a mass-marketing environment and discusses brand positioning, brand storytelling, cultural branding, disruptive marketing, and social media marketing. After working through the case and assignment questions, students will be able to do the following:<br><ul><li>Analyze what makes good brand storytelling.</li><li>Outline theories of cultural branding, and demonstrate how marketers use social and pop culture to create stories.</li><li>Describe the role of authenticity in brand storytelling and explain how consumers respond to collaborations as well as markers of (in)authenticity.</li></ul>

• pop culture
• digital marketing
• marketing
• disruptive marketing
• brand storytelling
• brand positioning
• social media buzz
• Gen Z consumers
• cultural branding
• influencer partnerships
• social media marketing
• community building
• brand authenticity
• JBL collaboration
• consumer engagement
• marketing strategies
• storytelling techniques
• brand value creation
• mass marketing
• brand relevance