Mar'19
The IUP Journal of Brand Management
Focus
Corporate heritage branding is an expression of a firm’s past, present and future through a harmonious combination of various parameters. It has nine mandatory components—historical identity, longevity, imagery, brand trusteeship/brand stewardship, consistency, value proposition, trust-authenticity-affinity, product brands and heritage CSR. There are also three additional components for building a corporate heritage brand (craftsmanship, date of inception and product ingredients) and five secondary components (message, media, corporate identity mix, legitimacy and regulation). All these culminate in the development of a corporate story and creative brand message, which are communicated to all stakeholders through various media.
The impact of brand narratives on consumers’ buying decision towards the flagship and flanker brands of Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) and Procter & Gamble (P&G), forms the subject matter of the second paper, “Flagship, Flanker Brands and Indian Consumers’ Buying Decisions: A Study on the Impact of Brand Narratives of Hindustan Unilever Limited and Procter & Gamble”, by Ankita Jain and Ritu Sharma. The paper evaluates story telling through advertisements, focusing on brands in the fabric care and hair care categories. Based on a field survey, this paper identifies the preferred brands in these categories across income groups and preferred advertisements across genders. Through a series of tests, it also establishes the relationship among different variables such as the impact of celebrity endorsements on brand image, impact of advertisement on building emotional relationships, etc.
The third paper, “The Role of Social Media Communication in Brand Equity Creation: An Empirical Study”, by Mohd. Sarwar Alam and Bilal Mustafa Khan, examines the role of social media in the creation of brand equity. The conceptual model proposes that firm-created content and user-generated content influence brand awareness, functional brand image and hedonic brand image. These in turn have an impact upon attitude towards the brand, and in turn, on purchase intention. The model is tested and established by the use of structural equation modeling.
Finally, the review of the book, Re-Build highlights how the book narrates the stories of 23 brands in India, which faced various types of crises and came out of the same through different brand rebuilding strategies.
Consulting Editor
The Corporate Heritage Brand Development Process: A New Institutional Theory Approach
The paper examines how the concept of corporate heritage brand management develops, based on a comprehensive review of academic literature on the meaning, components and models of corporate heritage brand management. Specifically, the study unearths the developmental processes from a new institutionalism theory perspective. Two important findings emerged. The first finding introduced new mandatory components of corporate brand heritage, namely, craftsmanship, date of inception and product ingredients. The second finding—a new institutional-driven model was advanced to give insight into the corporate heritage brand development process. The findings of this study are useful in guiding managers responsible for corporate branding and corporate communication. It also contributes knowledge by expanding the mandatory components of corporate heritage brand.
Flagship, Flanker Brands and Indian Consumers’ Buying Decisions: A Study on the Impact of Brand Narratives of Hindustan Unilever Limited and Procter & Gamble
The main objective of this paper is to identify the impact of brand narratives on consumer buying decisions towards flagship and flanker brands of Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) and Procter & Gamble (P&G) and to identify the impact of various parameters of advertising which affect purchasing decisions. The viewpoint of respondents on brand narratives of flagship and flanker brands has been discussed. The recorded data are analyzed with cross-tabulation, regression, independent sample t-test and ANOVA. The findings of the study indicate that brand narratives of flagship brands are more preferred by respondents in both fabric care and hair care categories of HUL and P&G. The regression technique has been used to identify the relationship among dependent and independent variables.
The Role of Social Media Communication in Brand Equity Creation: An Empirical Study
Social media interactions among consumers have changed the marketing scenario. Businesses are actively present on social media platforms so that they can understand how consumers are responding to anything related to their brands. This is imperative as the consumers’ online interactions and discussions are shaping the brand’s image and purchase intentions. In the light of this environment, this study aims at finding out the influence of social media communications on brand equity with special focus on how the two dimensions of social media communication, i.e., brand or firm-related content and user-generated content influence brand equity and purchase intentions. The study shows that firm-created content over social media significantly influences functional brand image, whereas user-generated content significantly influences brand awareness and hedonic brand image. Further, brand awareness and hedonic brand image lead to brand attitude, which finally impacts purchase intention.
Book Review
Re-Build: A Primer on Crisis Management