Brand Hostage - How NGOs achieve their Strategic Goals on a Reputational Battlefield

Abstract: Purpose: The purpose of the study is to explore the phenomenon of brand hostage, with the aim to develop a framework and a definition for a deeper understanding of its modus operandi. Relevance: Over the past two decades, disruptive and successful NGO campaigns have increasingly targeted corporations, which makes the topic a major concern for managers. Nevertheless, both from an academic and practitioner's perspective the phenomenon remains elusive and neither well understood nor described in theory or practice. Methodology: A qualitative multiple-case study with a constructionist and interpretivist stance has been chosen to follow the inductive approach. For the data collection and analysis of that data, a grounded theory approach was applied. The selected NGO cases encompass three Greenpeace campaigns as well as one campaign each from the Organic Consumer Association against Starbucks and Green America against General Mills. Findings: The research findings indicate that the phenomenon of brand hostage is significantly more complex than stated in current literature, as demonstrated in the developed NGO brand hostage framework resulting from the case analyses. Furthermore, there exists the possibility of a continuing partnership after the resolution. Contributions: The research contributes to NGO, reputation management and crisis communication theory by providing a framework and definition of the brand hostage phenomenon. These insights can be of relevance for managers who either aim to manage or prevent a brand hostage, as well as for NGOs for their future campaign planning.