Corporate Advertising Pass-through onto the Brand: Some Experimental Evidence

While researchers and managers have speculated that corporate advertising can have an impact on brand knowledge, to date there is no empirical support for such "pass-through." We report on a laboratory study manipulating the presence or absence in a brand ad of retrieval cues for subjects' corporate advertising and their pre-existing brand knowledge. We found evidence of pass-through, but it was moderated by the retrieval of subjects' pre-existing brand knowledge. Our results have theoretical and managerial implications, and suggest a number of interesting opportunities for future research.     

European Corporate Sustainability Framework for Managing Complexity and Corporate Transformation

The European Corporate Sustainability Framework (ECSF) is a new generation management framework, aimed to meet increased corporate complexity and support corporate transformation towards more sustainable ways of doing business. It is a multi-layer, integral business framework with an analytical, contextual, situational and dynamic dimension.Analytically, the framework is structured according to four focus points – the constitutional, conceptual, behavioural and evaluative perspective – providing integrative designs of complex and dynamic phenomena. The framework includes coherent sets of business philosophies, approaches, concepts and tools that structures corporate realities and generates sequences of steps in order to obtain adequate institutional structures, a road to corporate transformation and higher performance levels.     

Managing Brand in the New Stakeholder Environment

The corporate sustainability, and responsibility, movement has considerable implications for and impact on the discipline of brand management. It creates pressures to which the discipline must adjust, and new growth opportunities for it to enjoy.In Maio's view, "brand" permeates all aspects of the corporation and therefore the values of the brand can serve as an effective touchstone for all corporate behaviours: in the Boardroom, in financial markets, in negotiations with employees, in customer interactions, in dialogue with other stakeholders. Moreover, most corporations already have "plumbing" in place (the organizational substructures and processes to manage their brand), that can serve as effective conduits for nurturing values-driven behaviours and measuring them.     

Meaning Making by Managers: Corporate Discourse on Environment and Sustainability in India

The globally generated concepts of environment and sustainability are fast gaining currency in international business discourse. Sustainability concerns are concurrently becoming significant to business planning around corporate social responsibility and integral to organizational strategies toward enhancing shareholder value. The mindset of corporate managers is a key factor in determining company approaches to sustainability. But what do corporate managers understand by sustainability? Our study explores discursive meaning negotiation surrounding the concepts of environment and sustainability within business discourse. The study is based on qualitative interpretive research drawing from symbolic interactionism (Blumer, Symbolic interactionism: perspective and method. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, 1969) which postulates that meaning in discourse is an essentially contested domain dependent upon negotiation in the Habermasian tradition of mutually respectful dialogue (Habermas, The theory of communicative action: lifeworld and system: a critique of functionalist reason. Beacon Press, Boston 1987). Data from semi-structured intensive interviews of a small sample of senior corporate managers was analyzed to examine how corporate elites in India frame their approach to sustainability issues and respond to external pressures for deeper corporate responsibility. The findings point to the existence of a distinctively local narrative with strong potential for the discursive negotiation of personal and collective understanding of ethical and socio-cultural values that may help internalize broader sustainability considerations into corporate decision-making processes.     

Servbrand Framework: A Business-To-Business Services Brand Equity Framework

ABSTRACT

Purpose: The research reported on here set out to develop a tailored branding model for business to business (B-to-B) services by applying the brand resonance pyramid to a selected B-to-B services context.

The brand resonance pyramid was developed based on research that was predominantly consumer product or individual brand oriented, though one of the objectives when the model was developed was that “the model had to be versatile and applicable to all possible kinds of brands and industry settings. As more diverse applications of branding continued to emerge for products, services, organizations, people, places, and so forth, the model needed to have far-ranging relevance”. The brand resonance pyramid therefore had to be applicable to any context, including B-to-B services contexts. However, consumer goods branding strategies are not directly transferable to B-to-B or services markets and there are documented differences between the B-to-B and business-to-consumer (B2C) markets and products and services contexts. There is also doubt regarding the validity of the contention that the brand resonance pyramid should be applicable to the B-to-B sector.

Methodology: Using an interpretivist qualitative research approach and an exploratory research strategy, the Servbrand framework was developed empirically by applying the brand resonance pyramid to a selected B-to-B services context. Fourteen useful in-depth interviews were obtained from appropriate and information rich participants that represented more than 14 of the 89 organization that were included in the selection frame. Some of the participants were responsible for the relevant decisions of more than one organization.

Findings: The results from the study reported on here (summarized as Figure 5) prompted the inclusion of a people dimension and elevated the importance of relationships in an amended B-to-B services brand equity framework. The people brand-building block includes the dimensions of attitude and demeanor, personality and values, personableness, product knowledge and client knowledge. Relationships, as the ultimate aim of the framework, concern both interpersonal relationships and partnerships.

The article presents a conceptual framework to guide effective brand building strategies in a selected B-to-B services context. Researchers can use the framework to test its applicability in other contexts, which will contribute to the amendment of a significant brand equity management framework.

The Servbrand framework can assist marketing practitioners to improve the effectiveness of strategic brand management for B-to-B services.

Contribution: The empirical research contributes to three areas of brand equity research, namely: 1) the offering type – by investigating service offerings rather than product offerings; 2) the brand level – by investigating organization-level brands rather than product-level brands; and 3) context – by investigating a B-to-B context rather than a B2C context. A revised brand resonance pyramid is proposed and called the Servbrand framework.     

The Advertising Effects of Corporate Social Responsibility on Corporate Reputation and Brand Equity: Evidence from the Life Insurance Industry in Taiwan

This study investigates the persuasive advertising and informative advertising effects of CSR initiatives on corporate reputation and brand equity based on the evidence from the life insurance industry in Taiwan. The study finds, first, policyholders?? perceptions concerning the CSR initiatives of life insurance companies have positive effects on customer satisfaction, corporate reputation, and brand equity. Second, the advertising effects of the CSR initiatives on corporate reputation are only informative. Third, the impacts of CSR initiatives on brand equity include informative advertising and persuasive advertising effects. This study contributes the literature by explicit defining the advertising effects of CSR initiatives. Following the first step made by McWilliams et al. (Journal of Management Studies 43(1):1?C18, 2006), the hypotheses of this study crystallize their conceptual framework. The obtained results in this research first identify the informative advertising effects and persuasive advertising effects of CSR initiatives.     

A Framework for Managing Environmental Strategy

Over the last ten years, environmental strategy has taken an increasing amount of top management time, and the trend seems likely to continue. This article argues that most firms' environmental strategy is based on the overly simplistic model of quantitative Environmental Performance Indicators (EPI) which basically aims merely to minimise emissions relative to inputs (energy, materials). The author outlines a broader framework based on identifying priority stakeholders, including future stakeholders and future alliances between stakeholders. Whilst recognising the practical difficulties, he argues that direct stakeholder consultation is a net gain to companies because it helps to identify in advance the limits for what they can and cannot achieve in practice: getting approval from stakeholders in advance will often make action easier and becomes a critical success factor in industries which are intensively scrutinised. Changing to this approach also converts environmental strategy from being purely a potential source of costs to a potential source of market value creation, making it more likely that the Board will view it within a positive framework.     

Mobile Advertising: A Framework and Research Agenda

Mobile advertising allows retailers, service providers, and manufacturers to provide consumers with increasingly relevant offers. The success of such campaigns depends on an ever better understanding of environmental, consumer, and technological context variables; a strong focus on advertising goals; accounting for market factors related to the nature of stakeholders and market environment; and the use of appropriate mobile ad elements to improve relevant outcome metrics. This article provides an overarching framework to synthesize current findings in mobile advertising, as well as a research agenda to stimulate additional work in this nascent field.     

Articulating a New Framework for Visual Metaphors in Advertising

This study develops and tests a conceptual framework for categorizing visual metaphors in advertising according to whether the pictorial elements in the ad are synthesized or juxtaposed. In this attempt, it subscribes to the view that creative ideas frequently share similar design structures and patterns in devising visual metaphors. This study demonstrates that compared with ad visuals that simply juxtapose metaphorical objects, ad visuals that synthesize conceptually similar metaphorical objects provoke greater elaboration and elicit more favorable consumer attitudes toward both the ad and the brand. These positive effects are not free of comprehension costs, however. Ads that synthesize very dissimilar objects (as compared with ads that juxtapose objects) fail to produce the same benefits and might, in some cases, even risk reducing the persuasiveness of the argument about key product attributes in the advertising message.     

Brand Power Relationships: A Co-Evolutionary Conceptual Framework

Abstract

In the era of the Internet and networking, stakeholders increasingly acquire power by influencing brand value and meanings. However, this does not imply that marketing managers have lost their power over brand creation and management. Thus, the aim of this study is to explore brand power relationships taking the co-evolutionary perspective as conceptual lenses. In particular, this article seeks to address the competitive relationship between the corporation and its stakeholders in determining the corporate brand evolution over time, suggesting that corporate brand management is successful when co-evolving power relationships are established. The relational interplay between managers and stakeholders is framed into the Brand Power Relationship Model that suggests four potential evolutionary paths. It offers new brand typologies supported by examples from business practices, which mirror four different ways of managing and adapting brands over time; namely, through the None’s Brand, the Managers’ Brand, the Stakeholders’ Brand, and the Co-Evolutionary Brand. Focusing on the latter, this study depicts managers and stakeholders as having reciprocal influences and co-determining themselves, thus triggering interrelated relational effects that influence corporate brand evolution over time. The bilateral power of managers and stakeholders is framed into a further model, focused on corporate brand co-evolution. It is proposed that corporate brands can successfully co-create their value and meanings over time only if corporations co-evolve with their environment—in this study, multiple external stakeholders.     

Children's Television Advertising and Brand Choice: A Laboratory Experiment

This experiment attempts to investigate the vulnerability of children to television advertising. Subjects between six and eight years of age were exposed to commercial stimuli under varying conditions. Groups were randomly assigned to view segments of “Jeannie,” a network children's show, either with an experimenter-produced commercial of a previously-unknown brand or a control ad inserted into the program context. In addition, the effects of traditional methodologies employed in related literature to one which minimizes reactance effects were studied. Children's brand choices were found to be influenced significantly by the communication of the commercial message for the previously-unknown brand.     

Corporate Legitimacy as Deliberation: A Communicative Framework

Modern society is challenged by a loss of efficiency in national governance systems values, and lifestyles. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) discourse builds upon a conception of organizational legitimacy that does not appropriately reflect these changes. The problems arise from the a-political role of the corporation in the concepts of cognitive and pragmatic legitimacy, which are based on compliance to national law and on relatively homogeneous and stable societal expectations on the one hand and widely accepted rhetoric assuming that all members of society benefit from capitalist production on the other. We therefore propose a fundamental shift to moral legitimacy, from an output and power oriented approach to an input related and discursive concept of legitimacy. This shift creates a new basis of legitimacy and involves organizations in processes of active justification vis-à-vis society rather than simply responding to the demands of powerful groups. We consider this a step towards the politicization of the corporation and attempt to re-embed the debate on corporate legitimacy into its broader context of political theory, while reflecting the recent turn from a liberal to a deliberative concept of democracy.Prof. Dr. Guido Palazzo is Assistant Professor for Business Ethics at the University of Lausanne (Switzerland). He graduated in Business Administration at the University of Bamberg (Germany) and earned his PhD in Political Philosophy (1999) from the University of Marburg (Germany). His research interests are in Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporate Branding, Democratic Theory and Organizational Ethics.Prof. Dr. Andreas Georg Scherer is director of the Institute for Organization and Administrative Science (IOU) and holds the Chair for Foundations of Business Administration and Theories of the Firm at the University of Zurich (Switzerland). He has published six books. His work has appeared in Academy of Management Review, Advances in Strategic Management, Business Ethics Quarterly, Journal of Business Ethics, M@n@gement, Management International Review, Organization, organization Studies, and in numerous volumes and German journals. Dr. Scherer is member of the editorial boards of Business Ethics Quarterly, Organization, and Organization Studies.     

Corporate Image: Employee Reactions and Implications for Managing Corporate Social Performance

Corporate image is a function of organizational signals which determine the perceptions of various stakeholders regarding the actions of an organization. Because of its relationship to the actions of an organization, image has been studied as an indicator of the social performance of the organization. Recent research has determined that social performance has direct effects on the behaviors and attitudes of the organization's employees. To better understand these effects, this study develops and empirically tests a model which links corporate leaders' actions, employees' perceptions of corporate image, and the employees' level of association with the organization. The effects of managing the social environment of an organization on its employees' perceptions of image, attitudes, and intended behaviors are discussed.     

Impact of Advertising Variability on Building Customer-Based Brand Personality in a Competitive Environment: Empirical Analysis with Reference to Mexico

ABSTRACT

Brand equity is built around brand personality as one of its core dimensions. The psychographic variables, such as emotions, associated with a brand's image constitute the brand's personality. Although consumers' experiences with the brand cultivate such a personality, advertising plays a dominant role in its creation. This paper attempts to explore the mechanism that builds brand personality through means of communication, such as advertising and word of mouth. The discussions in the paper integrate advertising variability concepts with brand personality and present viable propositions as managerial implications for building a brand's personality while taking the variables of marketing communication into consideration. The hypotheses set within the integrated framework lead to the construct of an advertising model that is cohesive to brand personality measures. In building this framework, analyses of the concepts of brand equity and advertising, communication, personality and loyalty have been critically examined and tested based on two separate studies conducted in Mexico.

RESUMEN. El valor de una marca se construye utilizando su propia personalidad como una de sus dimensiones intrínsecas. Las variables psicográficas, tales como las emociones asociadas a la imagen de la marca, son las que constituyen su personalidad. A pesar del hecho de que son justamente las experiencias que los clientes tienen con la marca las que crean dicha personalidad, la publicidad también desempeña un papel importante. Este documento trata de explorar el mecanismo utilizado para construir la personalidad de la marca a través de medios de comunicación tales como la publicidad, y los datos transmitidos verbalmente por las personas. Los argumentos utilizados en este documento integran los conceptos de la variabilidad publicitaria a la personalidad de la marca, y presentan propuestas viables como implicancias gerenciales para construir dicha personalidad al mismo tiempo que toman en consideración las variables del mercadeo comunicacional. La hipótesis trazada dentro del marco integrado nos llevó a construir un modelo publicitario coherente con las medidas de la personalidad de la marca. Al construir este marco, hemos analizado los conceptos inherentes al valor de la marca y su publicidad, comunicación, y lealtad críticamente, poniéndolos a prueba en dos estudios separados realizados en México.

RESUMO. O valor da marca-brand equity-é construído ao redor da personalidade da marca como uma de suas dimensões principais. As variáveis psicográficas, tais como emoções, associadas à imagem de uma marca constituem a personalidade da marca. Embora experiências dos consumidores com a marca cultivem tal personalidade, a propaganda desempenha papel dominante em sua criação. Este artigo busca explorar o mecanismo que constrói a personalidade da marca através dos meios de comunicação, tais como propaganda e boca a boca. As discussões apresentadas no artigo integram conceitos de variabilidade da propaganda com personalidade de marca e apresentam proposições viáveis de implicações gerenciais para a construção da personalidade de uma marca, ao mesmo tempo em que levam em consideração as variáveis da comunicação de marketing. As hipóteses levantadas no âmbito do arcabouço integrado levam à construção de um modelo de propaganda que é coerente com as mensurações de personalidade de marca. Construindo este arcabouço, análises dos conceitos de valor da marca-brand equity-e propaganda, comunicação, personalidade e lealdade, foram examinados criticamente, e testados baseados em dois estudos independentes conduzidos no México.     

Managing the Risks of Corporate Political Donations: A Utilitarian Perspective

This paper applies a utilitarian analysis to corporate political donations. Unlike the more common rights-based analyses, it is argued that the optimal policy is the one that best satisfies society’s rational preferences concerning donor influence, adequate financing, donor pressure and the cost of maintaining and enforcing the democratic system. This analysis suggests that a ban is best if it would be generally observed and sufficient financing from other sources is available, otherwise a donation cap is a better option. Further, lobbyists should be banned from donating small gifts and drafting bills for candidates. The impact of disclosure and other risk management mechanisms are also considered.     

Achieving and Managing Global Brand Equity: A Critical Analysis

ABSTRACT

According to some experts, brand equity is a company's most important asset. In this article, the authors first study the durability of brand equity in the long run. Then they examine the maintenance of that brand equity. The study analyzes the relative position of the top 50 most important global brands. Rank correlations indicate that, in the short run, the top 50 brands maintain strong equity levels, but in the longer run, this equity dissipates. In order to empower global brands in the long run, the authors put together a general global brand strategy model that would achieve and maintain brand equity. The model has three important components: strategic action, generating brand power, and achieving sustained brand equity. Such a model could balance the success in achieving brand equity globally both in the short and long run.     

An Integrated Framework of Newspaper Advertising: A Longitudinal Analysis

The article develops an integrated framework for analysing newspaper advertising, based on extant theoretical and practical knowledge on the subject. The framework is subsequently used to examine changes in 100 elements of newspaper advertisements over time. For this purpose, 2,250 illustrated advertisements were systematically extracted from national newspapers published in Cyprus during the period 1900-1974. Each advertisement was content-analysed by independent coders, based on a coding frame focusing on three major parts: copy (headlines, subheads, and body copy), art (illustrations, identification marks, and typography), and layout. The analysis revealed that: (a) certain advertising elements are systematically used more frequently than others, irrespective of time; (b) there are significant variations in the use of most of the advertising elements examined among different time periods; and (c) while the use of some of these elements increases systematically over time, others show a steady decrease.     

Corporate accountability in Australia: Managing the information environment for corporate accountability

Accountability is a significant factor in the soundness of the organisational environment in Australia, for both the public and private sectors. The accountability process rests on the quality and accessibility of organisational records, the information environment. While the Australian liberal democratic open society and free market system relies on accountability, paradoxically accountability is constrained by the needs of the open society and the market. Setting appropriate mechanisms for accountability while preserving civil liberty and innovative free markets is a difficult task, and is one that falls to government. Governments have a ubiquitous role in implementing accountability in both the public and the private sectors, and the Australian federal system further complicates governments' difficult role. The 1990s will bring further corporate pathologies, similar to those of the 1980's. However the public and private sectors can reduce the impact of corporate pathologies in the 1990's by learning the lessons of the 1980's, through placing a priority on inculcating ethical and moral behavior, emphasising democratic values, and raising the organisational status of records.Lance McMahon is a lecturer specialising in government in the School of Management and Marketing, Curtin Business School. He has previously worked as a senior policy adviser in the Western Australian State Government.