From Dr. Seuss to Barbie’s cancellation: brand’s institutional work in response to changed market logics

Abstract

Research on brand activism does not fully inform us about how established brands are transforming in response to the ever-changing political, cultural, and social norms. To answer this gap, our paper investigates 24 established brands in the entertainment industry, within 18 mother companies, targeting children to unveil these dynamics. Using institutional theory as our enabling lens, our paper first traces the changes in the institutional logic guiding the market leading to threatening the brand’s legitimacy. We then uncover how these brands came under attack for violating the changing market logics through passive exclusion and representation offence. Forced to sustain their legitimacy, the brands direct their institutional work towards conducting structural interactive strategies. These strategies create symmetry across a spectrum of stakeholders: consumers, employees, and communities. We label these strategies: revamping, surgerying, and attaching. The strategies enable brands to sustain legitimacy amid change. Our findings contribute to the literature on legitimacy repairs and maintenance, brand activism, and children-related marketing. We also provide managerial recommendations on conducting structural changes.