Sustainability Communication in Global Consumer Brands

Should you create a uniform global brand or a set of independent local brands? While the world has moved closer to the idea of monolithic global brands envisioned by Ted Levitt more than two decades ago, not all brands have moved in that direction nor is it likely that they will. Some companies such as Coca-Cola or Starbucks have developed valuable global brands. Other companies such as Campbell Soup have many brands that are unique to local markets. Many companies such as Procter & Gamble, Unilever, or Toyota have a diverse mix of global and local brands. The authors point out that this diversity of approaches is the result of competing forces affecting branding strategy. The forces of increasing homogenization of customer requirements, globalizing competitors, and global marketing effectiveness are driving increased globalization; however, inherent market differences, entrenched local brands, growing channel power, and opposition to global brands are pushing companies toward local identity and adaptation. Decisions to use global and local brands are complex and depend upon a mix of factors, including products, industry, cultures, and competition. The authors discuss choices about developing brands along this spectrum and also examine the key strategies for managing brands globally using coordinating mechanisms that include global business teams, research-based brand planning processes, and metrics and incentives for encouraging collaboration.

As more companies become interested in global markets, it has become crucial for firms to create globalized brands whose positioning, advertising strategy, personality, looks, and feel are consistent across nations. The purpose of this study is to investigate the global branding strategy of the Hyundai Motor Company (hereafter HMC) in order to show how the company processes its branding strategy. HMC, one of the leading global companies in the automobile industry, set up its brand identity as “Modern premium”, in alignment with their new slogan “New Thinking New Possibilities”, in 2011. The aim of the “Modern premium” concept was to provide consumers with new experiences and values beyond their expectations. HMC wanted their consumers to think of their cars as not only a medium of transportation but as a life space, where they can share experiences alongside HMC. In an effort to conduct consumer research in 5 different nations, HMC selected “brilliant” as a key communication concept. The word “brilliant” expresses the functional, experiential, and emotional dimensions of HMC. HMC furthermore chose “live brilliant” as a key campaign message in order to reinforce their communication concept. After this decision, the “live brilliant” campaign was exhibited through major broadcast channels around the world. The campaign was the company’s first worldwide brand campaign, where a single message was applied to all major markets, with the goal of building up a consistent image as a global brand. This global branding strategy is worth examining due to its significant contribution to growth generation in the global market. Overall, the ‘live brilliant’ global brand campaign not only improved HMC’s reputation image-wise, with the ‘Modern Premium’ conceptualization of the brand as ‘simple’, ‘creative’ and ‘caring’, but also improved the consumer’s familiarity, preference and purchase intention of HMC. In fact, the “live brilliant” campaign was a successful campaign which increased HMC’s brand value. Notably, HMC’s brand value increased continuously and reached 9 billion US dollars in 2013, leading it to reach 43rd place in the Global Brand Rankings according to the brand consulting group Interbrand. Its brand value largely surpassed that of Nissan (65th) and Chevrolet (89th) in 2013. While it is true that the global branding strategy of HMC involved higher risks, it was highly successful according to cross-nation consumer research. Therefore, this paper concludes that the global branding strategy of HMC made a positive impact on its performance. We further suggest HMC to combine its successful marketing with social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram and embrace digital media by extending its brand communication horizon to the mobile internet

As more companies become interested in global markets, it has become crucial for firms to create globalized brands whose positioning, advertising strategy, personality, looks, and feel are consistent across nations. The purpose of this study is to investigate the global branding strategy of the Hyundai Motor Company (hereafter HMC) in order to show how the company processes its branding strategy. HMC, one of the leading global companies in the automobile industry, set up its brand identity as “Modern premium”, in alignment with their new slogan “New Thinking New Possibilities”, in 2011. The aim of the “Modern premium” concept was to provide consumers with new experiences and values beyond their expectations. HMC wanted their consumers to think of their cars as not only a medium of transportation but as a life space, where they can share experiences alongside HMC. In an effort to conduct consumer research in 5 different nations, HMC selected “brilliant” as a key communication concept. The word “brilliant” expresses the functional, experiential, and emotional dimensions of HMC. HMC furthermore chose “live brilliant” as a key campaign message in order to reinforce their communication concept. After this decision, the “live brilliant” campaign was exhibited through major broadcast channels around the world. The campaign was the company’s first worldwide brand campaign, where a single message was applied to all major markets, with the goal of building up a consistent image as a global brand. This global branding strategy is worth examining due to its significant contribution to growth generation in the global market. Overall, the ‘live brilliant’ global brand campaign not only improved HMC’s reputation image-wise, with the ‘Modern Premium’ conceptualization of the brand as ‘simple’, ‘creative’ and ‘caring’, but also improved the consumer’s familiarity, preference and purchase intention of HMC. In fact, the “live brilliant” campaign was a successful campaign which increased HMC’s brand value. Notably, HMC’s brand value increased continuously and reached 9 billion US dollars in 2013, leading it to reach 43rd place in the Global Brand Rankings according to the brand consulting group Interbrand. Its brand value largely surpassed that of Nissan (65th) and Chevrolet (89th) in 2013. While it is true that the global branding strategy of HMC involved higher risks, it was highly successful according to cross-nation consumer research. Therefore, this paper concludes that the global branding strategy of HMC made a positive impact on its performance. We further suggest HMC to combine its

This study aims to investigate the effects of perceived brand globalness (PBG) on consumer affective and behavioral responses to brand failures and for how consumer perceives global and local brands and their responses in the event of failure present or absent related to brand performance and brand familiarity, brand presence and prestige, brand equity, product country match, country ethnocentrism.This research is conducted in regards to women consumers in two cities in North India related to global and local brands with impact of perceived brand globalness to brand failures present or absent scenario based on consumer responses. The research explored into four main factors as dependent variables on which PBG effects are examined and observed in failure present as well as failure absent scenario. This research consists of mainly two studies and two preliminary tests. Study 1 is executed basically to investigate and to test consumer responses towards brand failures of fictitious brands. Study 2 is designed to examine consumer responses to brand failures of established brands.The study found that PBG effects are more positive on Global brands as compared to the local brands and concluded that consumer is less negative and less impulsive to the global brands when they met failure scenario. The study could not find any significance and examined that customer ethnocentrism does not interrupt with buying behavior. This research was able to test whether global brands are still perceived superior to local brands in the context of Indian consumer and also test whether the effects of PBG on consumer responses to brand failures will be mediated by consumer attribution as blaming or fault accountable in the event of encountering.Int. J. Soc. Sc. Manage. Vol. 5, Issue-1: 18-30

In recent years, frequent extreme disasters have challenged supply chain operations while smart risk warning systems are developed to facilitate firms' emergency order shifting to a new manufacturer. It is noted that reliable manufacturers are usually located in countries/regions levying carbon tax to achieve high ESG scores, so we consider a cross-border supply chain consisting of a global brand, a local brand, an overseas manufacturer and a local manufacturer to investigate the main tradeoffs for the global brand to emergently shift orders from the overseas manufacturer facing disruptions to a stable local manufacturer subject to carbon tax cost. The global brand has the option to wait for the recovery of overseas production but if it chooses emergent order shifting, it has to invest in carbon emission reduction due to ESG requirements. We intriguingly find that even though emergency order shifting helps avert delays caused by production disruptions, a more resilient supply chain does not necessarily lead to a higher profit for the global brand, depending on factors such as the relative market size, carbon tax cost, and the efficiency of carbon reduction investment. We also find that the global brand's emergency order shifting enables Pareto improvement of economic and environmental sustainability, but the win-win opportunities for both the global and local brand only appear under the recovery waiting strategy. So it is generally hard to coordinate the stakeholders' incentives to jointly optimize the ESG scores.

This study aims to explore the brand equity trends among the top 100 global automobile brands during the last two decades. Using 20 years of longitudinal data published by Interbrand on brand equity ranking of 100 Best Global Brands (2001–2020), a trend analysis was performed on 18 global automobile brands that appeared on this list. The trend analysis was conducted based on the aggregated annual brand equity of all brands, the number of brands by region and country, growth patterns in brand equity and per-unit brand equity (UBE) for six countries and three regions. Major trends presented in the article include the relegation of American brands, the resilience of Asian brands, the dominance of European brands, the deleterious impact of the global financial crisis of 2008 and the COVID-19 pandemic on the automobile industry, four clusters within the best automobile brands and per UBE. The clusters include leaders, challengers, starlets and intermittent. The ‘Leader’ cluster includes top brands like Toyota, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Honda, Ford and Volkswagen and appeared 20 times in 20 years on Interbrand’s global brand list with minimum brand equity of US$12bn in 2020. The ‘Challengers’ cluster includes brands like Hyundai, Audi, Porsche and Nissan, which have a higher brand equity growth rate than other clusters. The ‘Starlet’ cluster includes Ferrari, Land Rover, Kia and Mini Cooper, all of which are operating in niche markets, except for Kia. The fourth cluster, named ‘Intermittent’, includes auto brands like Chevrolet, Subaru, Lexus and Tesla. The analysis of per UBE presented in this article for the first time has shown a novel way of looking at automobile brand equity. It explains why Ferrari and Porsche have exceptionally high per UBE, which is reflected by high prices and a low number of units produced. The managerial and academic implications of the research and limitations are presented in the end.

Consumers in developing countries are experiencing improved standards of living and lifestyle and exhibiting a desire to consume global brands. This study examined the effect of life satisfaction of Indian consumers on brand consciousness and brand-specific variables (i.e., perceived quality, emotional value, brand loyalty) for a global apparel brand (i.e., Levi's). A total of 411 college students in Mumbai, India, participated in the survey. This study found that Indian consumers’ life satisfaction positively influenced their brand consciousness, in turn, influencing perceived quality and emotional value for the global brand; however, the effect of brand consciousness on brand loyalty was not significant. Managerial implications for global retailers who plan to enter the Indian market as well as future research opportunities are discussed.

In recent years, sustainability has become a crucial concern in the food industry, with restaurants playing a significant role in promoting sustainable practices. Consumers increasingly demand transparency and responsibility, pushing restaurants to adopt and effectively communicate their sustainability efforts. This research investigates the sustainability communication strategies of Thai and global brand restaurants on social media and official websites. The purpose of this study is to compare how Thai and global brand restaurants communicate their sustainability practices. The study used a content analysis approach to analyze posts from Facebook, Instagram, and the websites of the Thai restaurant brand “S&P Syndicate” and the global restaurant brand “Minor Food.” The measures used to evaluate sustainability communication are qualitative. The study identifies and analyzes recurring themes related to sustainability. Additionally, it assesses the tone of the messages to categorize the tone of communication, examining how these elements support and enhance the communication of sustainability initiatives. The coding sheet was designed based on four theories: the Triple Bottom Line (People, Planet, and Profit), Integrated Marketing Communication, the Elaboration Likelihood Model, and Narrative. The findings reveal that the content themes of S&P Syndicate emphasize environmental sustainability through eco-friendly product designs, recycling programs, conservation projects, and community inclusion. Minor Food, on the other hand, focuses more on people development by integrating comprehensive health programs, educational partnerships, training programs, and community empowerment initiatives. Minor Food adopts more innovative technologies and has a broader global communication and impact than S&P Syndicate’s local focus. The message tone of S&P Syndicate presents community engagement activities in a formal and traditional public relations style, while Minor Food encourages a wider range of stakeholders and aligns with the global agenda in a professional image, demonstrating a passion for sustainable achievement. This study provides insights into how Thai and global brand’s unique focus and methodologies contribute to their overall sustainability goals, offering valuable perspectives for businesses aiming to enhance their sustainability communication strategies.

The purpose of this study is to explore how the value of being global brands is experienced differently based upon foreign versus domestic origin of a brand. The conceptual framework is tested on samples from three countries – United States, India, and China. The data are analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling. The belief that global brands are of higher quality, more socially responsible, and deliver a sense of belongingness to a global community led to an orientation toward globally available consumption alternatives, or global consumption orientation (GCO). High GCO has been associated with preferences for global brands; however, we find that while this preference indeed extends to global brands based in foreign countries, it does not extend to global brands based in the home country. The study of global brands seldom distinguishes among types of global brands. This research examines global brands based on their foreign versus domestic origin; thus it offers a more nuanced understanding of the boundaries for the value of global brands.

We have seen the market transition over the past 40 years, from the “Age of Identity, the “Age of Value”, to the “Age of Experience”, and now fast approach the “Age of You”. Brands – and indeed their creation and management – have evolved exponentially over that time but one vital constant that continues to hold true is the brand as a powerful business asset and value creator.This paper examines brand value and brand value management for luxury and meta-luxury brands. We explain the role of brand as it applies across different sectors and why it is markedly higher in luxury. With examples from some of the leading brands in our annual study of the Best Global Brands, we explore in greater depth what brand value management in The Age of You means for luxury and meta-luxury brand owners. How important is the role of brand for luxury brands compared to other categories and how do you measure the role of brand? What differences are existing related to the role of brand between the different luxury brands?How big is the contribution of the symbolic benefit of luxury brands compared to their functional benefit and how do you measure this? What significant differences do exist related to the factors of brand strength of luxury brands compared to the average of all categories? How do you build the ranking of the best global luxury brands and what is the result of the actual ranking and the development of brand equity of the luxury brands compared to the average development of all categories? Which essential conclusions could be drawn for the management of brand equity for luxury brands (implications for management of brand equity)?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate how consumers perceive and evaluate local and global brands – in a developed mature European market. Design/methodology/approach – For this purpose, four dimensions and two consequences of brand equity are evaluated, based on consumers’ standpoint. Structural equation modeling is carried out in order to analyze results obtained. Findings – The findings suggest that brand loyalty, brand image and perceived quality exert the higher influence on consumers’ brand value; while there are relevant differences in consumer’s assessment toward local and global brands. Originality/value – This study provides local and global brand marketers with further specific knowledge on how to market and enhance their brands’ value in a globalized increasingly competitive world.

Branding is the lynchpin of any corporate communication. But what makes brands valuable, what is a global brand, and why are there still so many local brands? This chapter addresses these and other questions. It first looks at some basic aspects of branding, such as the brand value, brand architecture, brand identity, brand image, and brand resonance. Next, it discusses various aspects central to global brands and highlights some of the challenges faced by companies aiming to globalize their brands. Finally, it examines the key digital and traditional communication tools available to companies and discusses the challenges of using them globally.KeywordsBrand equityBrand architectureBrand imageBrand personalityBrand resonanceBrand extensionEndorser brandBrand alliancesCo-brandingGlobal vs. local brandsDigital media communicationPull communicationPush communicationOwned mediaPaid mediaEarned media“Glocal” communication strategies

PurposeBrand positioning based on the brand’s country of origin is at the centre of attention in international marketing. It is evident that global brands constitute critical intangible assets for businesses and places. However, it is not clear how they contribute to national economies. This paper aims to discuss the significance of brands as contributing to the value of their companies but also helping to leverage national economies. Although global brands can be produced and purchased in multiple countries, their influence on the economy of the country where their owner’s seat is located can be more meaningful than in other economies included in the “global factory”.Design/methodology/approachBased on 500 Brandirectory, the Most Valuable Global Brands 2011-2015 rankings powered by Brand Finance, the authors observed a spatial-economic autocorrelation which exemplifies the potential interdependency between gross domestic product (GDP) and brand value. This relationship has become a starting point for designing a spatial regression model.FindingsThe findings support the hypothesis that assumptive spatial dependencies have a significant influence on the examined relationship of brand value and GDP.Originality/valueThe presented study is the first to examine the potential interdependence between brand values and GDP of the countries of origin using a dynamic spatial approach.

Due to the careless use of natural resources, developments in technology, industrialization and population growth, environmental pollution and resource depletion are experienced in the world. The garment clothing and fashion industry has a significant impact on the rapid depletion of natural resources. The rapid change in fashion, especially in the garment clothing industry, negatively affects sustainability in the use of resources. Besides these; the careless use of large amounts of water and chemicals in production, and the release of waste to nature also harm the sustainability of life. These negative factors have started to increase consumption with environmental awareness, especially among consumers who care about nature. Conscious consumers' interest in nature has led to an increasing emphasis on sustainability in production and consumption by brands in ready-to-wear and other sectors. Especially in the Industry 4.0 process, the concept of sustainability has become one of the most important issues for global brands. The production of garment clothing products with natural fibres and materials is of great importance in terms of sustainability. These materials are compatible with nature and can be recycled. In apparel, due to long supply chains, energy and labour intensive production, ecological, economic and social sustainability studies are of high importance in the production and process management process.
 In the research, application examples of global brands in the ready-to-wear and fashion sector, based on sustainability studies, were examined. For example; Stella McCartney, one of the luxury fashion brands; uses organic cotton, eco-friendly fibre and recyclable polyester and cashmere for sustainability. While Mara Hoffman uses tencel fabric and organic cotton, Gucci has banned PVC in its products since 2015 and prefers to use a carbon zero footprint in its work. While DeFacto, one of the global ready-to-wear brands, implements many environmental projects related to PET bottles, water use and textile waste, global brands such as Nike, GAP, Levi's, C&A, Inditex group, Nude Jeans also carry out exemplary studies on sustainability. As can be seen from the global brand examples, brands, on sustainability; develop applicable strategies in the fields of development goals, management of production and operation processes, supply policies, waste management.

Currently, global brands have a significant impact not only on the economy, but also on other social processes. Huge financial, production and human resources are concentrated in global brands. Academic interest in global brands has been growing rapidly since 2005. The phenomenon of global brands attracts the attention of researchers from various fields – economists, financiers, marketers and systems analysts. The purpose of this article is to identify trends for the world's most valuable global brands with geographic ties. The initial data for the study are the ratings of the most valuable and strongest global brands published annually by Brand Finance. The time period of the study was the last 10 years - from 2015 to 2024. It was found that the drastical share of the value of global brands falls on 7 countries: USA, China, Germany, Japan, France, United Kingdom, and South Korea. The first position in the ranking is occupied by the United States, and the second, with a significant gap, is China. This pair of countries has steadily increased its share from 54.2% to 68% in the TOP–500 for 7 years, and from 63.5% to 79.8% in the TOP-100. Since 2021, the situation has stabilized. The dynamics of China and USA are in an opposite phase – while one country is increasing its share, the other is decreasing. Since 2021, the USA shows a positive dynamics. Japan shows a stable negative trend in both the TOP–100 and the TOP–500. USA, China, Germany, and South Korea have stronger positions in the TOP–100 than in the TOP–500 throughout the period. These countries focus on hyper-valuable brands. France and United Kingdom are on the other side, preferring valuable rather than hyper-valuable brands. Japan occupies an intermediate position between these two clusters. Further research should be directed to the analysis of global brands as a complex system with the identification of the peculiarities of statistical laws of distribution of the value of its elements and their variability over time.