A crisis can significantly impact a
company’s brand, sales and even survival (cf. Wang, 2016), and the greater the
financial brand equity of the brand, the more detrimental the impact as no
crisis emerges in isolation. And one crisis is likely to bring about new
crises, especially if the organization fails to manage it. (Pearson and
Mitroff, 1993) In spite of this, previous research has mainly focused on single
crises, and studies on recurring crises are limited.

Our study discusses a plagiarism series in
Marimekko, a Finnish design house celebrated worldwide for its original prints
and colours. The effects can be detrimental in a branded-house strategy, even
the whole industry and the country image of Finland are at stake.