Corporate branding, identity, image and reputation (COBIIR)

Citation

Melewar, T.C., Nguyen, B. and Abimbola, T. (2013), "Corporate branding, identity, image and reputation (COBIIR)", Marketing Intelligence & Planning, Vol. 31 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/mip.2013.02031eaa.001

Corporate branding, identity, image and reputation (COBIIR)

Article Type: Guest editoral From: Marketing Intelligence & Planning, Volume 31, Issue 5.

Research in the area of corporate branding and its cognate area of identity, image and reputation has significantly increased since the 1990s. Many scholars have produced research papers in journals such as the European Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Management, Corporate Reputation Review and Corporate Communications: An International Journal, amongst others. These papers and journals have enhanced our understanding of these areas of research. We have observed novel ways of thinking that have emerged from many research disciplines which range from marketing to organizational studies. The various approaches to the development of the area's theoretical foundation and the manner in which the research has been conducted, have proliferated over the years. The field has now extended to many diverse areas and environments due to the enthusiasm and energy of researchers. In this Special Issue we publish seven papers which cover specific topics in Corporate branding, identity, image and reputation (COBIIR).

The first paper by Abdullah, Nordin and Aziz, entitled, “Building a unique online corporate identity”, examines the mission and vision statements of corporate websites of Malaysian and Singaporean corporations, and is based on Aaker's brand personality dimensions. The paper analyses how these dimensions are used to effectively develop a unique corporate identity. The authors found that the companies have not used the brand personality dimensions in an effective manner to project their corporate identity. The authors also found that these companies failed to position themselves in the marketplace using brand personality dimensions in their vision and mission statements. This failure may have affected their overall organizational direction in building a unique corporate identity to gain competitive advantage amongst the major global players.

The second paper entitled, “Corporate brand-rapture theory: antecedents, processes and consequences”, written by Lloyd and Woodside, reviews relevant literature which examines the deep implicit and explicit emotional attachments, beliefs, attitudes, decision processes, and behaviour towards corporate brands. The authors highlight issues pertaining to the areas of stakeholder-brand relations and feelings about a brand; the role rapture brands play in stakeholders’ stories and the likelihood of brand acceptance and rejection. They posit that corporate brand marketing communications strategies which seek to create a relationship of engagement between the brand and its most loyal stakeholders are essential to the marketing discipline. The paper argues that corporate brand rapture provides a more powerful form of source credibility than other metaphorical brand concepts, including corporate brand personality.

The paper entitled, “The impact of customer-company identification on consumer reactions to new corporate initiatives: the case of brand extensions”, by Ashraf and Merunka presents the concept of customer-company identification (CCI) which refers to a social relationship between a company and its customers. Their study emphasises the mediating consequences of CCI (commitment to the company and feeling of belonging to an in-group) on consumers’ responses to brand extensions. It is interesting to note that CCI leads to company customer commitment and to a related group, through identification processes. The authors also found that both forms of commitment influence consumer reactions to new corporate initiatives. They observed that whilst CCI's effect on company commitment is stable, in-group commitment is more influential in forming consumer responses, but that its influence varies depending on any given situation.

The fourth paper entitled, “Integrating country-of-origin image and brand image in corporate rebranding: the case of China”, by Guercini and Ranfagni, assesses how companies entering the Chinese market integrate brand image and country image. They also investigate how these companies redefine this integration in the corporate rebranding process which is adopted to develop the new market, and the impact they achieve in terms of commercial and economic results. Through a case study analysis they find four significant scenarios: the corporate rebranding strategy defined in China where brand image is created independently from the country image; the impact of the integration on brand attitude is sought by producing a cross-fertilization between the meaning of brand attitude and of country image attitude; the level of integration (country-of-manufacture, country-of-design) embodies the aim of the integration itself; and finally; the differentiation of the country image for different brands passes through a phase of focalization.

The paper entitled, “Developing an environmental corporate reputation on the internet”, by Gurau analyses the communication strategies designed and implemented by five medium-sized French firms, as well as their impact on customers’ perceptions. The author first presents the online communication strategies implemented by medium-sized firms to enhance their environmental reputation, and goes on to outline the main challenges and success factors. Then he analyses the alignment between strategic objectives, operational implementation and corporate reputation effects, which have been evaluated through customers’ perceptions. Gurau found that the direct correspondence between the strategic objectives defined by the firm, the communication strategy, and the implemented operational elements, were of great importance. However, as a result of opportunistic environmental claims made by other firms in the past, customers require not only clear and updated online information, but also objective proof about the trustworthiness of a company's messages and actions regarding the environment.

The paper entitled, “Country image as a nation branding tool”, written by Hakala, Lemmetyinen and Kantola, examines Finland's country image among potential travellers and potential consumers of Finnish products. The authors posited questions such as: what is the level of awareness about Finland among the respondents? how is the awareness constructed in terms of dimensions? where does the image stem from (the source)? They found that strong micro-macro, i.e. “product-category versus country” associations, are likely to indicate strong country awareness. In the case of Finland the micro-macro connection was weak, thereby indicating weak awareness. Moreover, they emphasised that image is important in the marketing of places: in other words, it is a holistic construct that derives from attitudes towards the country's perceived attributes.

The final paper entitled, “A framework to attain brand promise in an online setting”, by Alwi investigates the determinants that influence online brand reputation (brand promise) and e-loyalty in the context of the airline setting. The study identifies the brand attributes that will explain the online brand promise represented by the emotional construct and subsequently e-loyalty. The authors propose that in order to differentiate its online brand the airline company needs to address the principal attributes – attractive price and site, and fulfilment – while continuing to provide an easy-to-use website. Efficiency was found to only directly influence e-loyalty. The authors suggest that in addition to informing its consumers about attractive price offers, delivery of tickets in a timely manner and an appealing package, it was important to be truthful and consistent about the offering; that is what determines e-loyalty from the consumer's perspective.

We hope these papers will encourage further discourse, discussion and debate in this ever-expanding research field. We would like to thank Professor Gillian Wright, the Editor of Marketing Intelligence & Planning, for providing us with a platform for presenting our research studies.

I hope you enjoy reading the papers.

T.C. Melewar, Bang Nguyen and Temi Abimbola

About the Guest Editors

T.C. Melewar is Professor of Marketing and Strategy at Middlesex University London, UK. He has worked at Brunel, Warwick, De Montfort, Zurich (Applied Sciences), MARA (Malaysia) universities. TC has published his research works in the International Marketing Review, Journal of World Business and International Journal of Market Research amongst others. His research interests are in the areas of branding, identity and cross-cultural issues.

Bang Nguyen is an Associate Professor, East China University of Science and Technology. His research interests include customer management, customer relationship management, consumer behaviour, services marketing and branding. He has extensive knowledge in retailing and has presented at various national and international conferences including EMAC and Frontiers. His research is published in Journal of Consumer Marketing, Journal of Strategic Marketing, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, etc.

Temilade (Temi) Abimbola is the Manager for Program Design & Development at the African Development Institute, African Development Bank. Prior to joining the Bank, she was an Associate Professor at Warwick Business School, University of Warwick, England. She taught mainly on the PhD, Executive and, full-Time MBA programmes in the areas of Quantitative Methods, Market Strategy, Branding, Organization, Identity, and Reputation.