How Is an Iconic Social Business Brand Created? The Case of the Bangladeshi Brand Aarong

Master's Thesis from the year 2016 in the subject Business economics - General, grade: B+, , course: MBA, language: English, abstract: The aim of the case study is to explore how Aarong being a social business became an iconic Bangladeshi brand and how it received its brand loyalty. An attempt was made to explore relationships of 4 independent variables of iconic brand which were attributing to brand loyalty in driving the high business growth of Aarong. In order to understand the iconic brand's concept the key factors such as brand personality, brand myths, brand storytelling, product's design and quality were identified from the literature reviewed. In order to identify the relationship, framework was developed, how brand personality, brand myth, artisans' storytelling, product's design and quality that had facilitated, Aarong, to accelerate high business growth by cultivating its brand loyalty with the support of visionary leadership and innovative organizational culture. A cross-sectional qualitative approach was taken due to the interpretivist nature of the study, where both focus groups and in-depth interviews were conducted with key personnel of Aarong including the management team members, heads of the departments (HODs) and key people involved in marketing and branding. The case was narrated as per the timeline set following the framework of the case. From the findings of the case, it was found that the Aarong needed to focus in three major areas: more communication and cultivation of the core iconic factors of Aarong brand through marketing and promotional activities, market expansion through crafting realistic competitive strategies in order to cater second and third tier city/town of Bangladesh, and finally, value chain reengineering as well as process reengineering in order to solve the dual challenge problems and bring the agility in fulfilling customers demand. From the case findings it was appeared that other issues associated Aarong in a position to be improved with proper planning and practical implementation. Finally a structure of an integrated supply chain and low-cost capital-intensive mass-production was proposed in order to meet up the increase demand from the potential customers as it had a strategic plan to cater global market through its e-commerce services.