Brand Policy Research Articles

Market access for developing economies: Branding in Africa

This paper presents the first phase of ongoing research on the relevance of branding as a market policy for offerings from Africa. It argues that brand marketing is an important competitive strategy through which firms from Africa could gain access to sophisticated and lucrative developed markets. The aims of the paper are first to examine the concept of branding as the basis for determining its appropriateness and roles in facilitating and developing access for offerings from Africa; second to examine perceptual factors that could generate measurable customer values through which brands from Africa may offer innovative and timely value proposition to customers; and third to examine the appropriateness of branding for African economies. It also examines sources of brand value propositions for branded offerings from Africa. At this stage in the research, the findings suggests that to some extent branding strategy could be an appropriate policy for African firms to compete in the continental African, and indeed in the global, markets. The paper outlines some of the gains from branding policy and addresses the question of whether branding makes sense in the context of Africa. It concludes on the virtue of branding policy for offerings from Africa.

The LOGMAN model: a logical brand management model

Proposes a model that combines the proactive and reactive nature of brand management. It is called the logical brand management model, abbreviated to the LOGMAN model. More specifically it combines insights from: Kaplan and Norton's balanced scorecard method; BCG's brand value creation method; the path analysis method; the gap analysis method; and the house of quality (QFD) method. It allows one to perform a logical brand consistency audit at several levels. It evaluates whether customer perceptions of the company's brand drivers and the external brand drivers are in line with the company's brand objectives. Furthermore, it analyzes the logical consistency of the company's brand policy across multiple customer segments and over time.

Branding ‘transformation’ in Canadian foreign policy: Human security

Within the study of foreign policy, there is an growing awareness of the importance of “brand development” in terms of the active attempts by states to cultivate a positive (inter)national identity through the implementation of particular policies and initiatives. Within the global arena, Canada's position as a member of the vanguard of human security states is well recognized, and by concentrating on freedom from fear issues, Canada has been able to trademark its own human security agenda. Yet, there is a gap emerging between the positive reaction attached to the Canadian Human Security Agenda, and the outcomes that have been generated, because of the continuing influence of political realism and economic liberalism on Canadian foreign policy. The impacts of this paradoxical situation are not only detrimental to global human security, but may eventually undermine the Canadian Human Security Agenda, and the international credibility of Canadians, as differences between Canada's brand image and policy outcomes become more widely recognized.

Commercial strategies for implementation of branding and OTC switching policies

Historically pharmaceutical companies have handled the loss in revenue from patent expiry by developing and concentrating their focus on new drugs. With the number of new chemical entities (NCEs) b...

Transformative Power of e-Business Over Consumer Brands

Should we consider e-Business a threat or an opportunity for consumer brands? Responses differ between mass and selective brands, between services and products. Customer involvement and trust are key moderators. But other new, and sometimes scheming, paradigms appear among consumer online and offline behaviors. Multiplication of loyalties and increased mobility drive new buying criteria, possibly diluting the role of brand. Obviously, consequences on branding policy are important. The stake is high. A strategic analysis of new business models and resulting market behaviors is essential. A first set of reflection tracks, ideas and tentative positions are advanced.

Brand Policy and Brand Equity

A brand represents the awareness and the image that a product has managed with a segment of customers. In business terms, a brand can be defined as a specific relationship created within a given market for the promotion of a particular product. The specific existing relationship between a brand and a given market indicates the functional and symbolic values that demand attributes to the product through the brand. Brand equity expresses brand value in operating conditions. Brand equity shapes the value, at a certain time, of brand identity (awareness and image) that has been established with a specific demand.

Building Store Loyalty through Store Brands

In this article, the authors study the role of a store brand in building store loyalty through a game theoretic analysis. In a market in which a segment of consumers is sensitive to product quality and consumers' brand choice in low-involvement packaged goods categories is characterized by inertia, the authors show that quality store brands can be an instrument for retailers to generate store differentiation, store loyalty, and store profitability, even when the store brand does not have a margin advantage over the national brand. In addition, this loyalty argument does not apply for the “cheap and nasty” private label strategy. Such a private label policy, on the contrary, reinforces rather than reduces price competition among stores. Indeed, the quality of the store brand must be above a threshold level to create this opportunity. It also follows that quality store brands, when carried by competing retailers, can be an implicit coordination mechanism that enables all the retailers to become more profitable. Finally, a quality store brand policy is profitable only if a significant portion of shoppers buys the national brand. This surprising result establishes the complementary roles of store brands and national brands. The former create store differentiation and loyalty, whereas the latter enable the retailer to raise prices and increase store profitability. The authors provide empirical support for their thesis by using evidence from Europe and household-level scanner panel data from the United States and Canada.

How important is marketing in China today to Sino–foreign joint ventures?

This paper presents the result of an exploratory survey of the role of marketing in China from the perspectives of foreign partners in 35 major Sino–foreign joint ventures. The result shows that China is already an integral part of the global market for many multinational companies, and increasingly, has become a significant part of their corporate business portfolios. Western marketing techniques and concepts have widely been considered effective in China. Multinational companies tend to standardize brand policy, product positioning, product lines and customer services and `localize' their choice of distribution channel, promotion, and market segmentation. Managerial implications are discussed.

Discount Chains and Brand Policy

Retail chains are observed in many industries. The question addressed here is whether retail chains can exploit buyer power by excluding some brands. In a theoretical model with two differentiated producers and a single retailer, we show that a retailer will require exclusivity (exclude a brand) if the brands are sufficiently symmetric in demand potential. Exclusivity will increase welfare if the excluded brand is a close substitute for the brand carried by the retailer. Our theoretical results are also set in relation to some findings from the Norwegian grocery industry. JEL Classification: L12; L42

Multibranding: Symptom of an Unclear Branding Policy

BRANDING IS A strategy for building relationships with consumers. Much more than a graphic, a brand conveys messages about quality, price, dependability, and many other attributes. In hopes of creating more desirable products, companies today are combining messages in dual‐ and multibranded offerings. Edwin Visser argues, especially in the case of multibranding, that this kind of layering is generally counterproductive, diluting brand messages and leaving consumers unsure about what they might be getting.

Brand Development

Focuses on the case example of one of the leading wallcovering manufacturers in the UK. Explores issues surrounding the development of brands within a commodity‐type market. The research attempted to analyse the factors which affected the decision‐buying process for the consumer, together with the role that the major DIY multiples played in creating and communicating an effective brand identity. The results of the initial research uncover a major deficiency in brand policy within this sector. They also indicate the importance of any branding policy being consistently communicated to the consumer and integrated across the manufacturer and retailer spectrum. Considers the need for alternative management styles in creating and establishing a successful branding strategy.

Transforming brand management from a functional activity into a core process

The erosion in the authority of brands within consumer markets brings into question the orthodoxy of traditional marketing practices across all markets. By adopting an “if‐we‐were‐to‐start‐again” policy, such elementary questions are currently being addressed in a number of major corporations. Using this approach, the notion of redefining branding policy and practice emerges as a fundamental and, arguably, the dominant core process in business redesign. In this paper, the skills required to manage this new process are delineated as value chain activities. The Integrated Brand, as this core process has been termed here, requires a multifunctional management cohesion if the new doctrine of customer retention is to be realized. Whilst these retention strategies may vary in execution across the stakeholder groups, each serve to reduce replacement costs. By also managing system costs and building primary customer share for revenue, the Integrated Brand organization can emerge with a balanced financial performance and brand equity managed as an asset. Amongst successful re‐engineered organizations, price premiums would be an acknowledgment of a superior offer but not a necessity in sustaining this balanced financial performance.

The European pricing time bomb: And how to cope with it

Future European price levels will be markedly lower than current ones; they could fall to the lowest of what are huge price differentials between countries. This is the ‘pricing time bomb’ European companies are facing. Hermann Simon and Eckhard Kucher argue strongly against any premature unifying or European prices, even if Europe-wide product or brand policies would seem to require it. Profits will only be sacrificed. Certain price differentials should be retained. The authors suggest a compromise between individually optimised prices in each country and a uniform European price: the ‘European price corridor’. It is the only solution which takes account of country-specific differences in prices as well as the unifying effect of disappearing barriers between countries. They also suggest that companies should act on implementing this in the immediate future.

Consumer price limits and the brand effect

The effect of brand name present/absent condition on consumer price limits was examined in an experimental setting. The findings of this study have important implications for pricing managers. The results support the past findings that brand name affects price perception. Branded products are perceived to be higher priced than unbranded products (higher acceptable price). That is, branded products seem to command a price premium as compared to unbranded products. The findings suggest that the well-known brand name should be positioned in the upper acceptable price range and the not so well-known brand names in the lower acceptable price range. This brand positioning strategy, in turn, will determine the product's position in the product line, the marketplace, its competition, and its use patterns. Price is very much a part of the product and branding policy.

Own Brands and the Cookware Market

Own brands are now emerging in the cookware market, and retailers are thus implementing strategies which influence manufacturers, traditional shopping outlets and consumer shopping style. This new trend is examined, seeking correlation with other market sectors which have already absorbed the own‐brand factor, relating what is current practice in the cookware market, identifying retailers' own and mixed brand policies and considering consumer choice factors. Cookware brand developments are not expected to differ from those of other sectors. Retailers will try to lead the market through product advancement, while manufacturers must seek to protect their brands by developing added value and using strong marketing strategies to promulgate anti‐own brand products.

Recall and Recognition Performance for Umbrella Print Advertisements

Abstract An umbrella advertisement, which involves promoting several products linked by way of a common theme, represents an attempt to achieve efficiency and/or impact of a firm's advertising expenditures. Based on knowledge-assembly theory of cognitive structure, the approach may be better suited for certain conditions than for others. A 4×3 (branding policy by number of products) full-factorial laboratory experiment was conducted to determine if family branding policies are more inherently suited for use of the approach than individual policies and if the number of included products has an impact. Results provided general support for the conceptual structure formulated. Implications and directions for research are given.

Why should firms manufacture retailer brands?

AbstractFor firms manufacturing convenience goods there are three branding policies available, a proprietory brand policy, a retailer brand policy and a mixed brand policy. A firm's choice depends on differences in demand and promotion costs between the proprietory and retailer brand markets. This can be analysed using a simple elaboration of the standard 3rd degree price discrimination model. But if the two markets are not independent over the long‐term there may be other consequences of following the optimization rules of the model. If retailers develop consumers' preference for their own shops and their own brands, the demand advantage enjoyed by manufacturers' brands may be reduced further. The more willing are manufacturers to supply retailer brands, the more retailers win undermine the demand for manufacturers' proprietory brands.

The Strategy of Own Brands

The author attempts in this article to compare some economic aspects of own and manufacturers' brands, in an attempt to shed light on some of the broader issues in the economics of marketing. The choice of brand policy is complex, depending on demand — and supply — side variables. Simple explanations of either the price differential between own and manufacturers' brands, or their relative market shares are misleading. Despite the absence of sufficient data, preliminary indications are that the price differential is related to different marketing expenditures. However, the market share of own brands is not related to the price differential alone; its market penetration is limited by the strength of the manufacturers.

Book Review: Brand Policy Determination

Book Review: Brand Policy Determination