Incorporating Sustainability in Branding: I Feel Slovenia

--Maja Konecnik Ruzzier, Nusa Petek and Mitja Ruzzier

The focus of entities nowadays is not only on financial results but also on ecological and social impacts of their businesses. This focus should be applied to all marketing principles. Unlike research on contributions, which emphasizes its general importance for entities’ operation in the market, there is little work exploring sustainability issues connected with brands and branding. In this paper, we argue that the sustainability aspect should be reasonably incorporated into both the visible elements and invisible elements of brands, at the level of brand development as well as implementation. The latter was tested on the brand I feel Slovenia, where sustainability is incorporated as the main branding idea. Our analysis shows that sustainability issues were systematically incorporated into both the visible and invisible parts of the brand. Consequently, all identity elements of the I feel Slovenia brand clearly indicate brands’ focus on nature and sustainable concepts.

© 2015 IUP. All Rights Reserved.

Brand Communities: An Emerging Marketing Tool

--Shubhomoy Banerjee and Soumi Chatterjee Banerjee

A brand community is a community of brand lovers bound together by a common string that is the love for a brand. It is a specialized community and bereft of any geographical boundaries. At the center of a brand community is a brand or a product, and like other communities, brand communities are also bound by shared consciousness. With the advent of network computers, many online communities have today come to the fore. The communication patterns of these communities are different from those found in face-to-face communication among individuals. The paper takes the example of one such online community, an online fan club of the Indian Railways and their efforts to portray the brand from a new perspective. Looking through the lens of the triangular theory of love (Sternberg, 1986) and the analogy of consumer-brand love (Shimp and Madden, 1988), we look at the love for a brand which has little or no competition. Going through the official website of the online community as well as other Internet sources, we also look at the shared feelings for the brand among the members of the community and how these feelings drive the brand community.

© 2015 IUP. All Rights Reserved.

Positioning in the Mind Versus Brand Extension: The Revision of Ries and Trout

--Henrik Uggla

This paper traces the historical roots of discourse to the debate of brand positioning versus brand category extension back to the early fathers of positioning theory. It is argued that the same psychological mechanisms that initially elevate positioning in relation to earlier USP-paradigms, work as to decentralize positioning in relation to brand identity in general and the epitome of brand leverage, brand category extensions in particular. The trajectory of discourse is unfolded in the works and debates of positioning versus extension ideologists in brand management.

© 2015 IUP. All Rights Reserved.

A Study on the Online Branding Strategies of Indian Fashion Retail Stores

--Shubham Goswami

The presence of Internet for business has created a large amount of scholarly literature on Internet marketing and consumer behavior. But relatively little empirical work has been undertaken on branding strategies over Internet. In recent years, customers are giving more value to brand and online experience. Also, the shift of power from companies to customer has pushed businesses to redefine their marketing and branding strategies. The paper contributes to the knowledge on online branding through exploratory research and identifies the ways in which the online channel is being used to support brands. The focus of this research is the online fashion store and multichannel retailers in India. The findings of the research confirm a consistency in multichannel brand visibility approaches over online and other channels, but their strategy for online brand relationship is still underdeveloped.

© 2015 IUP. All Rights Reserved.

Exploring Branding as a Strategy to Boost Local Rice Patronage: Evidence from Ghana

--Peter Anabila

The study investigates the role of branding as a strategy for boosting the consumption of locally produced rice. A total number of 207 respondents participated in the study. Convenience sampling technique was employed to select a cross-section of consumers of rice in the Greater Accra Region. Descriptive statistics and graphs were used to present the results. Results from the study indicated that consumer preference for locally produced rice was generally low; that consumers have favorable disposition towards good branding; and that brand elements such as logo, symbol, and customer relationship were important components of a brand that influence rice patronage. The study recommends innovative branding, private/ public partnership as a national policy to boost consumption of local rice, and finally improvement in quality of local rice to scale up local rice patronage. The empirical survey provides a useful guide to strategy at firm level and national level. The study shows that branding as a strategy can change consumer attitudes in favor of local rice, resulting in increased patronage.

© 2015 IUP. All Rights Reserved.