The uninvited brand

Brands rushed into social media, viewing social networks, video sharing, online communities, and microblogging sites as the panacea to diminishing returns for traditional brand building routes. But as more branding activity moves to the Web, marketers are confronted with the stark realization that social media was made for people, not for brands. In this article, we explore the emergent cultural landscape of open source branding, and identify marketing strategies directed at the hunt for consumer engagement on the People's Web. These strategies present a paradox, for to gain coveted resonance, the brand must relinquish control. We discuss how Web-based power struggles between marketers and consumer brand authors challenge accepted branding truths and paradigms: where short-term brands can trump long-term icons; where marketing looks more like public relations; where brand building gives way to brand protection; and brand value is driven by risk, not returns.     

江苏企业自主品牌创建与管理的深层次思考

进入品牌营销时代的江苏经济要走好创新发展之路,需要依赖有自主品牌的本土企业作为支撑,江苏省多数企业急需将品牌提供的超越产品和服务本身利益之外的价值做到最大化,即提升品牌资产价值。江苏企业在自主品牌建设中存在三个方面急待正视的误区:认为做品牌就是做广告、做品牌就是做产品质量、做品牌就是做客观产品;江苏企业应当改进观念认识,把握创建与管理自主品牌资产的根本,在做信号产品和符号产品、明确品牌创建的主要途径、抓好品牌专业化管理等三方面把好关,切实提升企业品牌认同感和品牌形象,真正有效提高品牌资产价值,创建可持续发展的江苏自主品牌。     

Internal brand identification as metamorphic glue in the internal branding process within a retailer network

Abstract

The growth of collaborative independent retail networks (CIRN’s) has been a significant response by independents to the growing power of retailer multiples. These networks vary in nature and structure, but share a common objective of improved competitiveness through more effective buying, pooled marketing and/or national brand recognition. At a minimum, these networks have enabled independent retailers to achieve a relative degree of competitive parity with multiples, through participation in strategic brand building. Consequently, there is a need for a greater understanding of key issues relating to building independent store brands through collaborative networks. This research aims to better understand the internal branding process within CIRNs, a relatively unexplored area of both the corporate branding, retail and organisational studies literatures. It focuses on one antecedent of internal brand commitment, namely brand identity, interpreted as the metamorphic glue in the internal branding process, using a multiple case methodology. Findings indicated a perception of shared values, shared goals, common branding challenges and strategic fit with the network brand that was key to the level of internal brand identification, but it was the level of social identification among owner-managers that provided fertile ground for internal brand commitment to develop.     

Branding co-creation with members of online brand communities

This article looks at the co-creation of value in the branding process with members of online communities. Three online communities in Iran are analyzed through 45 interviews with members along with three interviews with top managers of the three brands of these communities. A content analysis shows a clear process in that the social interactions of customers in online brand communities with their favorite brands help develop relationship quality and increase customer brand loyalty. The findings suggest that firms may develop their branding strategies using social media and online brand communities through relationship marketing by using an online co-creation strategy. The findings also serve to inform practitioners of the impact of social media on branding and how they can best facilitate these brand relationships.     

Cultural Brands/Branding Cultures

This conceptual paper examines the interface between culture and business, with specific reference to branding. It argues that, while considerable strides have been made in recent years to develop Arts Marketing theory, the subject now needs to take account of wider social and cultural issues. The paper explores the way in which processes of meaning-making have been theorised in consumption and cultural studies. It argues for a view of the symbolic dimensions of branding practices that positions them within the circuit of culture, as a cultural phenomenon. It is argued that brands are symbolic articulators of production and consumption. In this sense, all brands are representational texts, and are socially, not merely managerially, constructed. Different kinds of cultural brands are identified, including cultrepreneurs, cultural corporates and commercial corporates, and their practices in relation to business and culture are discussed. It is suggested that marketing (including branding) is not a neutral analytical repertoire for the study of exchange relationships, but is itself a particular kind of cultural brand, namely an ideological myopia which operates in the service of capital. It is suggested that Arts Marketing practitioners and scholars consider these wider issues in formulating their marketing practices and research strategies.     

Public relations and corporate social responsibility: Some issues arising

The paper questions current assumptions about the benefits of corporate social responsibility and the claims that corporations make on behalf of their corporate social responsibility programmes. In particular, the paper suggests that the use of corporate social responsibility for public relations ends raises moral problems over the motivation of corporations. The paper cautions that the justifications which corporations employ may either be immoral or inaccurate with regard to the empirical evidence gained from a small-scale qualitative study carried out in the UK at a time when the practice of corporate social responsibility was expanding quickly (1989). It is noticeable, in retrospect, that great emphasis is placed upon environmental rather than social responsibility. This implies that organisations are primarily reactive in their development of corporate social responsibility programmes and that they respond to external pressures rather than working out the nature of their corporate responsibilities. It might suggest that corporations only take such actions when they feel compelled to do so by consumerist and environmentalist lobbies. The paper argues that corporations do need to find moral justifications for their moral activities and to ensure that corporate social responsibility practice lives up to the claims made by public relations practitioners. The paper explores the nature of public relations and illustrates how its responsibility for corporate social responsibility extends beyond truthfulness in publicity.Jacquie L'Etang has postgraduate degrees in history, public relations, and social justice. She is a lecturer in public relations at the University of Stirling, Scotland, teaching on the M.Sc. in Public Relations full-time and distance learning courses. She teaches design and editorial management, communications, and business ethics. Her research interests are in corporate social responsibility and the history of public relations.     

Leveraging Associations: The Promotion of Cultural Sponsorships

SUMMARY

Sponsorship of the arts is growing as a marketing communication method, and companies are using this tool to achieve various business objectives. These include branding, corporate hospitality, and building community relations. The activities that the companies engage in to promote the sponsorships are guided by the objectives they wish to achieve. Additional leveraging is supported by advertising and public relations for branding. For corporate hospitality, promotional support is vested in personal selling with public relations initiatives. For community relations, promoting the sponsorship is focused primarily on public relations activities with an emphasis on personal selling.     

Branding in the age of social media firestorms: how to create brand value by fighting back online

ABSTRACT

Leading research on social media firestorms typically advises managers to quickly quell the backlash by appeasing brand critics. Drawing on crisis communications and branding research, we offer a radically different perspective and argue that brands can benefit from fighting back online. Through a netnography of a moral-based firestorm, we contribute to the marketing and crisis communications literatures by identifying the escalation strategy as a way to build brand value; explaining how brands can activate supporters; and providing guidance on how to assess these morally steeped events. We advance branding research by identifying how managers can provoke consumer-generated brand stories; and uncovering the hidden benefits of negative consumer voices. Finally, we outline a new perspective on how brands are dialogically constructed through a process we call ‘flyting’.     

Brands as cultural resources in children’s peer culture

This article examines how children collectively appropriate brands as cultural resources. From the New Childhood Studies perspective, an ethnographic study was conducted in schools to investigate the engagement of 10- to 11-year-old children in brand culture. The findings demonstrate that, through a process similar to Corsaro’s model of interpretive reproduction, children do not simply reproduce brand culture; instead, they actively use branding to fuel their peer culture. Mastering and manipulating brands are thus sources for integration or exclusion within the peer group and for differentiation from the adult world. We show the paradoxical impacts of branding on children’s well-being and participate in the debate on their vulnerability to marketing by highlighting how they deploy brand culture to interact in their social spheres, with the consequence being that their would-be empowerment remains entangled in the “brandscape.” Last, we contribute to a better understanding of the concept of culturally based brand literacy.     

What and how to communicate about a corporate brand with the consumers: An exploratory study

The present exploratory study investigates the differential impact of various relevant corporate brand associations on consumers' cognitive (product attitude and purchase intention) and affective responses (affective corporate commitment) in the three sectors, namely durables, services and fast moving consumer goods. The findings reveal that corporate brand associations can be categorised into two categories – universal associations, which are influential in all the sectors, and sector-specific associations, which have a differential effect on consumers in different sectors. Thus, this study reveals that corporate branding is important to consumers in all the sectors, but a single corporate brand story does not work in all the sectors. Further, corporate associations do not always have a positive effect on the consumers; under certain circumstances, these might either have no effect or have a negative effect on the consumers. Finally, there are two routes by which corporate brand associations can influence consumers – by affecting their cognitive responses or by influencing their affective responses towards the company. The recognition of the important corporate brand associations in the three sectors, and the routes (cognitive or affective) through which these associations influence consumer choices would enable marketers to develop more sophisticated corporate communication strategies.     

The United Nations Global Compact: Engaging Implicit and Explicit CSR for Global Governance

In the past few decades, a growth in ethical consumerism has led brands to increasingly develop conscientiousness and depict ethical image at a corporate level. However, most of the research studying business ethics in the field of corporate brand management is either conceptual or has been empirically conducted in relation to goods/products contexts. This is surprising because corporate brands are more relevant in services contexts, because of the distinct nature of services (i.e., intangible, heterogeneous, and inseparable) and the key role that employees have in the services sector (i.e., they can build or break the brand when interacting with customers). Accordingly, this article aims at empirically examining the effects of customer perceived ethicality in the context of corporate services brands. Based on data collected for eight service categories using a panel of 2179 customers, the hypothesized structural model is tested using path analysis. The results show that, in addition to a direct effect, customer perceived ethicality has a positive and indirect effect on customer loyalty, through the mediators of customer affective commitment and customer perceived quality. Further, employee empathy positively influences the impact of customer perceived ethicality on customer affective commitment, and customer loyalty positively impacts customer positive word-of-mouth. The first implication of these results is that corporate brand strategy needs to be aligned with human resources policies and practices if brands want to turn ethical strategies into employee behavior. Second, corporate brands should build more authentic communications grounded in their ethical beliefs and supported by evidence from actual employees.     

Ethical corporate social responsibility: A framework for managers

Managers encounter difficulties in developing corporate social responsibility programmes. These difficulties arise from conflicting interests and priorities. Pressures may be both internal and external and corporate social responsibility programmes usually evolve from a combination of proactive and reactive policies. The first experiences of a company are likely to be reactive, in response to requests for equipment, sponsorship or charitable donations but companies soon become aware of the benefits of planned programmes. Planning implies objectives, performance criteria and evaluation, and a rational framework for decision-taking. This paper attempts to highlight problem areas for managers and to develop a pragmatic framework of analysis which will help identify and clarify corporate social responsibilities. The paper, which is written from a UK perspective discusses the contribution of stakeholder models and highlights limitations of this approach. It develops an ethical framework focused on concepts of responsibility.Jacquie L'Etang is a Lecturer in Public Relations at the University of Stirling, Scotland and teaches on the full-time and distance learning MSc degrees in Public Relations. She has postgraduate degrees in history, public relations and social justice and her main research interests are in business ethics and the theory, history and sociology of public relations.     

Projecting corporate brand image and behavioral response in business schools: Cognitive or affective brand attributes?

This paper considers corporate brand image, focusing on cognitive and affective brand attributes in the context of business schools. While previous research on university or institutional branding has studied these elements separately via cognitive (e.g., service or educational quality attributes) or affective criteria (personality traits of the corporate brand), this study investigates them jointly through behavioral responses (leading to positive recommendations about the corporate brand). This is important because brand equity such as positive word-of-mouth (or mouse) is derived from both attitudinal components, rather than being based on only one component. Drawing on an empirical survey of postgraduate (MBA) students from four business schools, the findings reveal that both cognitive and affective attitudinal components appear equally important in shaping corporate brand image. Further, when the mediating effect is investigated, interestingly, students' positive recommendations to schools depended largely on the affective (prestigious, adventurous, empathy and competence) rather than upon the cognitive brand attributes. This paper contributes theoretically to the corporate brand and consumer behavior literature by investigating both attitudinal components at a corporate brand level and investigates their effects on behavioral/conative response. The practical contribution of the paper and its managerial implications lie in the context of defining strategy in relation to positioning business schools in an increasingly competitive higher education market.     

Is your organization conducive to the continuous creation of social value? Toward a social corporate entrepreneurship scale

Over the last decade, explicit emphasis on the creation of social value has grown in profit-seeking firms as well as nonprofits and has even led to the emergence of a new legal organizational classification known as for-benefit corporations. Like financial value, social value is dynamic and therefore subject to perpetual changes in the firm’s external environment, changes that yield opportunities and threats for the firm. Although social entrepreneurship researchers have begun to study the identification and exploitation of opportunities to create social value, this research has taken place primarily within the context of startup organizations. In contrast, corporate entrepreneurship research has emphasized value creation within existing firms, but focused primarily on the identification and exploitation of opportunities to create financial value. Combining the two, we examine the creation of social value within the firm by proposing the social corporate entrepreneurship scale (SCES), a new instrument that measures organizational antecedents for social corporate entrepreneurship and offers managers an opportunity to analyze whether the perceived environment is supportive of corporate entrepreneurial behaviors intended to create social as well as financial value. The article concludes with a discussion of the instrument’s potential contribution to managerial practice.     

From brand identity to polysemous brands: Commentary on “Performing identities: Processes of brand and stakeholder identity co-construction”

The commentary endorses the view of brands as complex social relations that develop among a multitude of enacted stakeholder identities and discusses in what ways this perspective may lead to a novel paradigm of brand building – one that highlights the dynamic and fluid character of brand identity. The author underlines the importance of better understanding the many ways in which (internal and external) stakeholders can contribute to brand identity construction. Suggesting how this novel brand building paradigm can contribute to resolving confusions stemming from current misunderstandings within the branding literature, the commentary sees the opening of a new avenue of fascinating research questions that can lead to a better understanding of stakeholders' roles in the construction of polysemous brands identities.     

Ingredient branding and feedback effects: The impact of product outcomes,initial parent brand strength asymmetry,and parent brand role

Ingredient branding is a popular strategy involving two “parent” brands developing a co-branded product, called an ingredient branding offering (IBO). Drawing on extant brand literatures, we investigate how brand feedback effects are influenced by (1) the initial brand strength among the parent brands (low vs. high), (2) parent brand roles (whether the brand is the host or ingredient), and (3) IBO success and failure. Three experiments indicate that IBO success positively affects both parent brands, but the positive feedback is much more substantial for the weaker (vs. the stronger) brand. Under the failure condition, the strong ingredient brand is the only parent that is somewhat protected from an IBO failure. All the other IBO possibilities—in terms of brand strength and parent role—suffer from substantial negative feedback and share a high level of responsibility for the failure. Managerial and theoretical implications are drawn from these results.     

Unlocking the Potential of Greater Female Employment in Europe

This paper investigates the drivers of female labour force participation in Europe, as well as the implications of achieving greater gender diversity in senior corporate positions. Re-examining the drivers of women’s decisions to work is particularly important in the context of Europe. In many European countries, the process of closing gender gaps in labour force participation has stalled, despite greater gender equality in human capital investment, declining birth rates, changing social norms and equal legal access to employment opportunities.     

企业生态系统社会责任互动的涵蕴与管理变革

传统的单向度、一元价值创造的企业社会责任研究范式需要向多向度、多元价值创造的企业社会责任研究范式演进和发展。文章在企业生态系统与企业社会责任的理论契合的基础上,提出和探究了企业生态系统社会责任互动的涵蕴与合理性表征,并提出企业生态系统社会责任互动的管理变革思路。企业生态系统社会责任互动的合理性表征为系统关联、复杂非线性、超系统的构建,其影响效应体现在缓解共生伙伴间的个体差异性冲突、降低信息不对称风险、更好地创造顾客价值、共创系统价值。互动视角下的企业生态系统社会责任研究会带来一场企业社会责任的管理变革,主要体现在生态共生、交互控制、价值拓展、互惠共赢、价值合一这五个方面。文章研究了拓展企业社会责任理论的研究领域和层面,有助于企业经营管理者摆脱战略近视,引导企业自觉地以生态学观点为指导去处理同其他企业与环境的社会责任关系,提升适应环境和改造环境的能力并实现企业可持续发展。     

Built-In Branding: How to Engineer a Leadership Brand

Everyone has experienced some sort of brand disappointment: the 'I didn't expect that from X' feeling. This failure of branding is a thorn in the flesh of marketing departments; often the problem is beyond their control and often it causes one of the most memorable - and most negative - experiences people have of their brand. In this article we will discuss the ways in which companies can engineer the delivery of their brands so as to reduce this risk and create enduring value.

This paper is concerned with the how: the way in which leadership brands bring their uniqueness to life to remain coherent and distinctive in all that they do. In order to grow leadership brands, we must understand how they are built into the organisation.     

The new WTP: Willingness to participate

A key concept underlying competitive strategy is that of WTP, representing the consumer's ‘willingness to pay’ a premium price for goods or services. Through branding and other efforts, companies strive to push their message out and create a high willingness to pay, whereby consumers feel there are few or no substitutes for what these companies are selling. Social media, however, are making push-based marketing anachronistic. Users of social media typically eschew professional communications forced on them by faceless and impersonal organizations, in favor of more personal conversations. These individuals seek greater engagement with their preferred brands, and involvement—with or without the company's approval—in creating brand personalities. Their affinity for these preferred brands might well auger the dawn of a new WTP: willingness to participate. This article presents a model of consumer engagement through social media, and argues for re-conceptualizing WTP by utilizing a series of examples which show how companies that engage consumers via social media (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, YouTube) stand to reap the benefits of long-term competitive advantages.