The academia in the area of business management is always trying its best to
contribute to the corporate world through its innovative researches and analytical insights. They endeavor to add as much value as possible to the knowledge of the corporate honchos through their research work. At times, like ours, when the competition is present in every nook and corner of the business arena, the academic support to the business managers is more pronounced and relevant. Our journal is one such medium through which we introduce the latest, most relevant and insightful research works to the corporate and the academic world. In the first paper, “Incorporating Sustainability in Branding: I Feel Slovenia”, the authors, Maja Konecnik Ruzzier, Nusa Petek and Mitja Ruzzier, 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. They test this hypothesis on the brand ‘I feel Slovenia’, where sustainability is incorporated as the main branding idea. Their analysis shows that sustainability issues were systematically incorporated into both the visible and invisible parts of the brand under study. Consequently, all identity elements of the ‘I feel Slovenia’ brand clearly indicate the brand’s focus on nature and sustainable concepts.

In the second paper, “Brand Communities: An Emerging Marketing Tool”, the authors, Shubhomoy Banerjee and Soumi Chatterjee Banerjee, argue that 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. They claim that the communication patterns of online 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. The paper explains the central importance of investigating communication flows in Internet-based interactive communication platforms.

In the third paper, “Positioning in the Mind Versus Brand Extension: The Revision of Ries and Trout”, the author, Henrik Uggla, traces the historical roots of the debate on brand positioning versus brand category extension back to the early fathers of positioning theory. The author argues 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 unfolds in the works and debates on positioning versus extension ideologists in brand management.

The next paper, “A Study on the Online Branding Strategies of Indian Fashion Retail Stores”, by Shubham Goswami, 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 from the research confirm a consistency in multichannel brand visibility approaches over online and other channels, but the strategy for online brand relationship is still underdeveloped.

The last paper, “Exploring Branding as a Strategy to Boost Local Rice Patronage: Evidence from Ghana”, by Peter Anabila, investigates the role of branding as a strategy for boosting the consumption of locally produced rice in Ghana. Results from the study indicated that consumer preference for locally produced rice was generally low; that consumers had favorable disposition towards good branding; and that brand elements such as logo, symbol, and customer relationship were important components of a brand that influenced rice patronage. Based on these results, the author recommends innovative branding and private/public partnership as a national policy to boost consumption of local rice.

- Nitin Gupta
Consulting Editor