Contemporary Issues in Branding

Pantea Foroudi, Maria Palazzo

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9780429769122
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Betriebswirtschaft
• Subtopic: Business allgemein

This book provides students and academics with a comprehensive analysis of the theory and practice of branding. The challenge to explore new and effective ways of harnessing the power of communication to engage with company stakeholders in interactive, immediate and innovative ways is ever-present in the digital era. Digital marketing and social media create opportunities for managers to communicate their brand's identity to their consumers and stakeholders. Yet, limited empirical research exists to elucidate these issues, and less still that assists our understanding of branding issues at an international level.

Recognising the complexity and plurality at the heart of the branding discipline, this text explores the relationship between brands, identity and stakeholders. Working through building, designing and maintaining a brand, the authors consider such aspects as strategic planning and campaign management, research and measurement, media relations, employee communication, leadership and change communication, and crisis branding. Critically, differing methods and approaches applied to branding and communication research design are assessed, including both qualitative and quantative methods.

Proposing a mixture of theory and practice with international case studies, this book is an invaluable companion for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students, academics of marketing and strategic brand management, as well as managers and decision makers globally.

PART I

Introduction

1

INTRODUCTION TO BRANDING

Issues and perspectives

Pantea Foroudi and Maria Palazzo

Contemporary Issues in Branding book could be seen as a key guide to brand scholars, brand, communication managers, and students and provides a comprehensive treatment of the nature of relationships between companies, brands, and stakeholders in different areas and regions of the world. This book serves as an important resource for the marketing, identity, and brand practitioners requiring more than anecdotal evidence on the structure and operation of stakeholders’ communication in different geographical areas. Recognising the complexity and plurality at the heart of the branding discipline, this text Contemporary Issues in Branding fills a gap in the market, by posing a number of original research questions on the intrinsic nature of brand and offers multiple, often competing, answers to those questions by reviewing, in a different and integrated perspective, dominant existing themes with the literature and subjecting them to critical scrutiny through a multifocal perspective. Our book Contemporary Issues in Branding addresses the following objectives:

•  Explores the multiple stakeholder audiences that brands of all types must address. Branding encompasses many facets, which will be covered throughout the book. Such facets of branding include strategic planning and campaign management, research and measurement, media relations, employee communication, leadership and change communication, and crisis branding.

•  Provides examples from a wide range of industries and firms in order to illustrate the many dimensions of branding and theories.

Readers are able to understand research studies from different branding points of view. In this sense, they are able to compare, contrast, and comprehend whether the “branding” from difference lenses is delivered similarly or otherwise in different parts of the world. This enables readers to understand differences and subsequent application towards managing these brands. In this context, readers are able to acquire “knowledge and understanding” of (i) the key issues in branding theories; (ii) the need for a strategic approach to planning and campaign management; and (iii) new developments in branding theories. In addition, they are able to (i) analyse the complex web of stakeholder audiences that brands must address; (ii) develop and manage stakeholder strategy and campaigns; and (iii) adapt to the differing demands of stakeholders such as employees, the media, and other stakeholder audiences.

The volume starts from the issues related to brands, identity, internal and external stakeholders, and companies and expands them adding useful insights on: legacy, identity, and reputation; performance and profit; leadership, differentiation, and protection; ethic, sustainability, and inclusion; aesthetics; voice; sensorium; virtual space; internal stakeholders; external stakeholders; and customer value, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, and business performance.

Research method-driven approach – Contemporary Issues in Branding is novel in its layout and concentration as it provides a combination overview of branding issues through rigorous study. The most exciting aspect of the book Contemporary Issues in Branding is that readers are exposed to differing methods and approaches applied to stakeholders and communication research design. The methods range from qualitative, quantitative, case histories, case vignettes, case studies, interpretivism, social narrative, etc. The contributors, in fact, work for different universities and have different backgrounds. This means that they reflect in their way to structure the book chapters, case studies, and other materials their different expertise and viewpoints, offering peculiar information about specific industries and regions. Chapters, examples, and cases are in fact international in coverage and their critical background appeals to the growing number of marketing programmes in Europe, Asia, and North America.

Target market – Contemporary Issues in Branding is a mixture of theory and practice with effective case studies, aims at reaching primarily doctoral, postgraduate, graduate, and final year undergraduate students in business and marketing, but it is suitable for both managers and decision makers around the world too. The text serves as an important resource for the marketing, identity, and brand practitioners requiring more than anecdotal evidence on the structure and operation of stakeholders’ communication in different geographical areas. It determines current practices and researches in diverse areas, regions, and commercial and non-commercial sectors across the world. It is very interesting to the readers to compare and contrast the brand values covering different research methodology and settings. Readers find it stimulating to compare and contrast different markets covering important aspects related to companies’ brands, identity, stakeholders, and reputation. The text includes an interesting mix of theory, primary research findings, and practice that will engender confidence in the students, academics, and practitioners of international branding, identity, and marketing alike.

Product category – Contemporary Issues in Branding is not a textbook aimed at core postgraduate and undergraduate courses, neither is it a research monograph. It is an edited book which serves as a supplementary text for advanced undergraduates and postgraduates and a key resource for practitioners.

Organisation of Contemporary Issues in Branding – There are five parts in the book. The first part highlights building a brand. This part considers interrelationships between branding, reputation, performance, leadership, and sustainability from a wide range of commercial and non-commercial aspects. It includes business-to-business and business-to-consumers as to whether branding values are delivered similarly in different sectors. Five topics are covered in this chapter, namely: branding: legacy, identity, and reputation; branding: performance and profit; branding: culture, leadership, and differentiation; branding: protection management; and branding: ethics, sustainability, and inclusion. The overview of all chapters and their contributors are described below.

Our opinion chapter, contributed to Christopher Pich and Louise Spry, focuses on the issues and perspectives in branding. In Chapter 2, they explore how organisations manage their corporate brands and the extent to which stakeholders are involved in this process. This chapter also explores how these two concepts may provide insights into the development and management of brand strategies by drawing on the notion of brand architecture.

Chapter 3, provided by Octavio Ibarra Consuegra and Maria Carolina Ovalle, explores how branding strategies contribute to the performance of companies among the countries. The chapter presents a theoretical overview of branding and own label. In first instance, analyse different literature of branding approaches, also branding performance as a mechanism for strengthening the productivity and competitiveness of companies in the market. Besides, analyse the own label concept, the importance of, and the relationship with branding.

Barbara Czarnecka contributes Chapter 4, which focuses on the effectiveness of global consumer culture positioning strategy executed via highly performance-oriented appeal across four European countries. An advertising appeal that is favourably perceived in different markets should be a suitable candidate for use as part of a standardised strategy. The results indicate homogeneous acceptance of the examined appeal.

In Chapter 5, Maria Teresa Cuomo, Cinzia Genovino, Francesca Ceruti, and Debora Tortora describe privacy and security of customers’ private data which have always been major priorities for the firms. The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation came up with new and significant challenges. In this light, by analysing the key features, a stronger brand responsibility and above all a “response-ability” are suggested in ensuring that customers’ data are treated with the respect and trust they deserve, with evident effects on customer care and brand reputation.

Maria Palazzo and Alfonso Siano contribute to Chapter 6 and explore how concepts of business ethics, corporate social responsibility (CSR), corporate sustainability, and inclusion impact on branding. Form the brand management point of view, the analysis highlights the main advantages of the new approach of sustainability and the related limits of the previous concepts of CSR and business ethics. Finally, the work recommends areas for further research about the selected topics and proposes several considerations about these complex subjects through a case study.

Part III considers interrelationships between branding, design, aesthetics, voice, sensorium, and virtual spaces from a wide range of commercial and non-commercial sectors which includes business-to-business and business-to-consumers as to whether branding values are delivered similarly in different sectors. Four chapters include: branding aesthetics, voice, sensorium, and virtual space.

Angela Bargenda provided the opening of this part (Chapter 7) and focuses on the delivery of brand value through aesthetics. Based on the concepts of aestheticisation and artification, the discussion centres on the use of art and architecture to create and communicate a meaningful and value-laden brand identity.

In Chapter 8, Gurdeep Singh Kohli and Dorothy Aiwan Yen explore the brand voice phenomenon. Second, it sheds light on whether brands can/should have multiple voices and the importance of developing a brand voice which is authentic, ethical, and operates with integrity. Third, how technology can “modulate” a brand’s voice is discussed, concluding with a case study.

Chapter 9 contributed by Tuğra Nazlı Akarsu, T. C. Melewar, and Pantea Foroudi elaborates the sensory branding in theory and practice. Since the concepts of “sense” and “experience” are interrelated and are found in different disciplines, the emerging concepts of sense in the field of marketing is discussed. A multidisciplinary approach is utilised by reviewing relevant literature from the fields of marketing, design, sociology, psychology, architecture, and management. Furthermore, the paradigm shifts from transition marketing to sensorial marketing are highlighted. In particular, the concept of sensory branding and its practices are discussed.

Chapter 10 is by Alice Mazzucchelli, Roberto Chierici, and Maria Teresa Cuomo. They consider that in virtual space, consumers live immersive experiences that contribute to the creation of brand associations. By branding the virtual world, firms can use new reality technologies to engage and establish relationships with customers, achieving a superior competitive advantage. This chapter aims to understand how brands can effectively exploit virtual spaces.

Part IV considers interrelationships between branding and stakeholders (internal and external), and communication from a wide range of commercial and non-commercial sectors which includes business-to-business and business-to-consumers as to whether branding values are delivered similarly in different sectors. This section considers four chapters as branding: internal and external stakeholders (employee branding); branding: global branding; branding: online community; and branding: offline community.

Saheb Imani and Niloofar Dehghani explore stakeholder perspective in Chapter 11 as an essential and pivotal part of any business, as well as integral part of today’s organisations. From this viewpoint, organisations should genuinely incorporate social responsibilities towards internal and external stakeholders in their branding operations. Since in stakeholders’ typology, internal stakeholder (employee) is most important type, companies need to pay attention strengthening the organisation-employee nexus. Accordingly, the purpose of this chapter is attention to branding from lens internal stakeholders and demonstrate the relationship between branding by employee and internal aspect of corporate social responsibility (hereafter internal-CSR), which unfortunately has been less estimated. The study concludes that internal-CSR can be relevant to employee branding process and represents a categorisation model for facilitating a concrete integration of internal-CSR practices and sustainable employee branding components.

Chapter 12 contributed by Giuseppe Festa defines a global brand as a powerful brand that is positively recognised throughout the world. Global means “standard”, but global means also “common” for “different” people: thus, a global brand must integrate, using differentiation as well. Simultaneously, “glocal” means local with a global perspective, but glocal means also extremely local, and therefore global. In these daring scenarios, new technologies, and social media in particular are useful tools for global brand building.

The concept of offline branding was explored by Ogechi Adeola, Edwin Agwu, and Chika Remigious Ezeugwu in Chapter 13. The authors examine offline branding as a complement to online branding from the perspective of a developing economy. The qualities of offline branding strategies in relation to the unique characteristics of Nigeria are put into context. The importance of offline branding for managers, academics, multinationals, and the government is highlighted.

Chapter 14 is provided by Reza Marvi, Mohammad Hossein Marvi, and Mohammad Mahdi Foroudi. They discuss the managing customer as the main purpose of every business. Due to micro and macro environmental changes in the business, strategies to find a way for establishing relationship with customers have changed from transaction marketing to relationship marketing and to more recently customer engagement.

Part V concludes our book with two chapters – Branding: Management and measurement and Branding: Customer value, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, and business performance.

Chapter 15 contributed by Vaibhav Shekhar, Anitha Acharya, Sanjit Kumar Roy, and Bang Nguyen describes the importance of consumer-brand relationship as acknowledged by both researchers and practitioners alike. It refers to a psychological bond shared by consumers with a brand. The above bond may be hot (emotional) or cold (cognitive) in nature. It is governed by four norms viz. solidarity, reciprocity, flexibility, and information exchange. Factors affecting the above relationship can be classified either as consumer or brand related. Both hot and cold relationships lead to positive outcomes (viz. brand loyalty, positive word of mouth, and willingness to pay price premium) leading to increase in firm performance. A firm has to keep consumers at the centre of its marketing activities to build successful relationship with them.

Finally, in Chapter 16, Asma Ahmed-Laroussi, Lucia Porcu, and Juan Miguel, Alcántara-Pilar highlighted internationalisation as a great advancement in the economic activity of many companies. For example, McDonald’s comprises a series of elements that contributed to build its brand image worldwide. The aim of this chapter is twofold: to analyse McDonald’s customer satisfaction by examining the role played by national culture and to assess how customers perceive McDonald’s Integrated Marketing Communication.

PART II

Building a brand

2

UNDERSTANDING BRANDS WITH CONTEMPORARY...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Contributors
• Acknowledgements
• PART I: Introduction
• PART II: Building a brand
• PART III: Designing a brand
• PART IV: Branding and stakeholders
• PART V: Conclusion
• Index