It goes with the territory: Communal leverage as a marketing resource

Abstract

This study explores mechanisms that lead to the creation of durable competitive territorial brands. An examination of research on origin-specific firms, umbrella branding, resource-based theory and co-opetition theory leads to questions regarding how firms that have strategically attached themselves to a place of origin add value to their own brands and obtain advantages for their firm. How can a co-created, non-proprietary territorial brand become a valuable marketing resource? Eight wine brands in the Champagne area of France are studied and the results show how ‘communal leverage’ occurs: a firm and its local co-opetitors engage in the ‘give and take’ of valuable marketing resources. Through communal leverage, multiple individual brands interact with an overarching territorial brand in order to sustain both territorial and individual brands. The research reveals a territorial brand to be a form of regional umbrella branding that is underpinned not by a top-down process as previous research would suggest but a bottom-up process. A territory's physical resources and capabilities are precursors of symbiotic marketing relationships for origin-specific firms.