Chris Halliburton

International branding: demand– or supply‐driven opportunity?

Differing views prevail about whether to standardize or adapt international brands. Postulates that the international brand decision should be based on standardizing the brand′s core essence across countries and assessing the extent to which its execution requires local adaptation. To facilitate such an assessment proposes a demand‐supply model. The appropriateness of this model was tested against a Eurocom study and through in‐depth interviews with managers of successful pan‐European brands. The model incorporates most of the factors elicited. There was clear support for maintaining the core essence of the brand across countries and only adapting its execution to accommodate local differences.

An integrative framework of corporate brand equity

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose an integrated conceptual framework showing how corporate brand equity is generated. It builds upon a number of previous studies which have focused upon specific aspects of brand equity and integrates these within a more comprehensive model.Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based upon a review and integration of the corporate branding, consumer psychology and strategy literatures.Findings – The result is the construction of a number of sub‐models and an overall proposed framework which integrates internal and external determinants of consumer‐based corporate brand equity and combines these within a comprehensive framework. The model encompasses internal, company‐determined, variables, a Stimulus‐Organism‐Response model, the stakeholder cognitive perception process, a number of mediating variables such as corporate performance, industry sector and internationality, and the resulting impact upon corporate reputation and brand equity.Research limitati...

Advertising assessment -- myth or reality?

In this paper the topic of advertising assessment is revisited, given the widespread availability of low-cost microcomputer modelling developments. It is recognised that when regression analysis became popular in the 1970s with the advent of the mainframe computer, much hype and little marketing benefit ensued. It is argued that simply speeding up the old practices of the 1970s, which rightly fell from favour, will provide no benefit to the advertising industry. ‘What is new’, the ‘benefits’ of advertising assessment, and where it is applicable are described. It is suggested that not only does technology facilitate data analysis, but also, critically, modelling methodology itself has changed, with a greater ability to remain close to ones data. As a consequence, it is argued that improved advertising decisions can only be made when the other elements of the marketing mix are formally taken into account. The methodology described in the paper has been developed and successfully applied in a number of sectors for different UK clients of Coopers and Lybrand, and Collett Dickenson and Pearce.

Are You Like Me? I Will Be Attached to You. Empirical Findings from an International Research About Consumer, Brand and Store Personality Congruence in Luxury Sector.

The paper analyses the phenomena of congruence between consumer, brand and store personality and its effect on attachment to brands in luxury sector at an international level. From a theoretical point of view, human personality, brand personality, store personality, congruence and attachment constructs are considered. From an empirical point of view, the paper presents the results of a quantitative primary research run on a sample young people “luxury experienced” from 10 countries. The empirical research considers specifically 6 luxury brands. In term of results this paper presents the validation of the personality congruence measurement scale proposed by the authors; furthermore the research highlights the existence of a correlation between personality congruence and brand attachment.

THE USE OF PRODUCT PLACEMENTS IN INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATIONS: A CROSS-CULTURAL STUDY OF CONSUMER RESPONSE IN EUROPE AND LATIN AMERICA

This study of Product Placements examines cross-cultural differences in the UK, Germany and Mexico using an online survey of 338 respondents. Although product placement can still be used as a standardised global marketing strategy significant cultural differences were found, Marketers must therefore pay attention to such differences for international product placement decisions.

European Market Entry Strategies

The purpose of this paper is to examine how external market factors influence the choice of international market entry (direct investment, partnership or acquisition) and to propose a framework to help companies when making their entry decision. It is based upon initial interviews with companies in 4 industry sectors and 6 countries and also upon a longitudinal two year case study working with a major German Food company entering a number of European markets, initially the U.K., Italy and Poland. The research confirmed the importance of external market factors in addition to the more prevalent research approach which focuses more upon internal company factors such as the resource-based view and company attributes and culture. It also allowed a framework to be derived from the research and actually tested in practice to guide the companys entry strategy. Using the derived framework, working within an action research methodology, the company chose 3 different entry strategies for entering the British, Italian and Polish markets based upon market-based criteria such as market growth, market consolidation, end customer and distributor fragmentation, product/service fit and market risk factors. The study therefore contributes to the body of knowledge on international market entry and through its managerial implications and use. It shows that a company, with the same set of internal resources and culture, can act in very different ways depending on local market conditions. It therefore seeks to ‘redress the balance’ from the predominantly internally focused approach by making the market entry decision more ‘marketdriven’.