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In the context of a merger, the management of corporate identity – in particular of corporate names and logos – assumes a critical role. This paper aims to explore how name and logo design characteristics, and specifically figurativeness, influence consumer preferences in the context of a brand merger, in the banking sector.

This study develops a typology of the alternative corporate identity structures that may be assumed in the context of a brand merger by drawing on a literature review and secondary data, as well as an exploratory study analyzing consumers' preferences regarding alternative branding strategies.

The results suggest that there is a clear preference for figurative logos. Furthermore, there is evidence that logos may be as important as the company name in a merger situation, in terms of assuring consumers that there remains a connection to the brand's past. The data show that the logo chosen by consumers reflects their aesthetic responses, whereas the selected name reflects their evaluation of the brand's offers or its presence in the market.

The paper uses an innovative research design which gives respondents freedom to choose their preferred solution; hence, the richness of the results is enhanced. The results should guide managers in their evaluation and choices regarding post‐merger branding strategies.

Focusing on small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which are characterized by resource restrictions, this paper aims to explore consumer segment profiles by considering demographic, personality and creativity traits to determine whether consumers with different profiles exhibit distinct affective reactions to different logo design types (organic, cultural and abstract).

This exploratory study incorporates recent methodological developments, such as the novel response style correction method, to account for response style effects in evaluations of affect toward logo design. In separate analyses, respondents are segmented according to response style–corrected logo affect and personality and creativity items. The segmentation analysis relies on reduced k-means, a joint dimension and cluster analysis method, which accounts for dependencies between items while maximizing between-cluster variability. A total of 866 respondents from the Iberian Peninsula (Portugal: n = 543; Spain: n = 323) participated.

Based on a study using unknown logos (proxy for lower levels of budget communication, characteristics of SMEs), results reveal that there are three segments of consumers based on their affective response toward logo design: logo design insensitives, cultural logo dislikers and organic logo lovers. These segments are associated with different personality traits, creativity and biological sex (although biological sex is not a discriminant variable).

The decision not to control logos by color, to increase external validity, could limit the study’s internal validity if this aspect interacts with relevant study variables. Nevertheless, the empirical evidence can be used to further test associations between consumer profiles and responses to logo design.

Findings highlight the relevance of considering complex profile segments, combining demographics, psychographics and creativity to predict affective consumer responses to brand logo design. This research provides guidelines for SMEs when choosing or modifying their logo design to appeal to different consumer segments.

This study provides managers of SMEs (less present nowadays in empirical studies) with evidence suggesting that complex customer profiles help to understand differences in affective responses to natural logo designs. Furthermore, it relies on the use of a novel methodological development that improves the accuracy of the exploratory study developed.

This paper aims to investigate the commonalities and asymmetries between consumer responses to different types of natural designs across countries.

Data were gathered through a survey in three European countries ranking differently in what concerns Hofstede’s (1981) uncertainty avoidance dimension (UAD). Respondents can vary strongly in the way they interpret and use rating scales, exhibiting a variety of response styles. In the analysis of consumers’ preferences for logo design, this article apply constrained dual scaling (CDS) to account for response styles in categorical data.

Results demonstrate the broad appeal of natural logo designs, suggesting that design preferences are similar within countries with different cultural orientations. However, findings indicate that cultural dimensions influence how consumers respond to different types of natural logo designs. Indeed, the positive effects of organic designs are even more salient in countries with higher UAD. Thus, when managers prepare to launch their brands in countries that exhibit more discomfort with uncertainty, they should consider incorporating organic visual identity elements into their logos to achieve the maximum positive affect.

Companies invest extensive time, research and money in generating, promoting and modifying their logos. This paper provides important implications for international brand managers aiming to build a consistent and favorable brand image. From a methodological perspective, the results come from the analysis of clean data – that is, data after applying CDS, which increases the validity of the cross-country comparison.

This paper aims to study how logo design characteristics influence consumer response. Based on an in-depth literature review on consumer responses to logo design, the authors included in this research one fundamental dimension of logo design, namely, naturalness and investigated the influence of the different types of natural logo designs on affective response.

In total, 96 logos were selected as design stimuli. The logos were previously classified, according to the naturalness of the logo design, as having an abstract, cultural or organic design. Responses were gathered through a survey in Portugal, including two studies with 220 participants.

Results show that naturalness is an essential logo design element which significantly influences consumer affective responses to the logo, and that natural logos are clearly preferred to abstract logos. Additionally, this research indicates that, within natural logos, organic designs are favored over cultural designs.

The findings presented suggest that affect toward unknown organic logos is at the same level as affect toward well-known abstract logos. This is a relevant finding from a managerial point of view, as familiarity, an essential cognitive response toward the brand that has a cost for the firm, can be replaced cost-free with unknown organic logos.

This paper is a first exploration of responses to different types of natural logo design. The results should guide managers in selecting or modifying logo designs for achieving a positive affective response.

This study answers the research question “How can businesses apply a luxury brand strategy to achieve innovation in their businesses or brands?” It aims to investigate the possibility of applying a luxury brand strategy to a wide range of business areas.

This study presents a literature review and case studies, analyzing 16 products from a selection of 8 iconic luxury brands. A survey conducted in Japan and Europe identified which of the 8 selected luxury brands had established the strongest brand image. Principal component analysis and SPSS were used to analyze the results. Scatter diagrams are used to depict the relationship between factors and product positioning. Brands and products were selected for case study analysis, and the features were generalized to show how companies in business segments other than luxury goods could apply this model.

The results showed that most of the strategy’s features apply to companies in different business areas. While luxury brand strategies are unique, their features can be generalized to stimulate innovation in other businesses or brands.

This study analyzed only two products under one luxury brand. Thus, the number of products is limited.

This study is unique because it examines how different business areas can apply the advantages of business strategy models. It illustrates the advantages of successful business strategies of luxury companies and how different companies can harness that success for future development.

The purpose of this study is to highlight the understanding of the consequent factors of new services development (NSD) in the literature owing to the impact on organizational competitiveness, especially in professional services, such as that investigated by health plan operators in the present study.

The sample (customer of family health plans) consisted of 255 valid cases. For the analysis of the data, multivariate statistical techniques were used through the modeling of structural equations.

The results found evidence of the significant relationships between the NSD considering the constructs, client orientation, reputation, professional competences and customer retention, as consequences of the NSD, which impact on the success of the new services launched by the health plan operator from the perception of the customer.

This implies that health plan operators need to develop new customer-oriented services by investing in new technologies and having more trained and qualified staff so that they can deliver superior services and, as a consequence, have a more profitable relationship with customers.

The new services may result in greater organizational performance and greater competitiveness for health service providers.

This paper aims to study the corporate heritage brand traits and corporate heritage brand identity by concentrating on developing key dimensions for the corporate heritage brand dimensions in the retailing industry in the UK. This study advances the corporate brand heritage theory and introduces the theory of corporate heritage brand identity, which is developed from the case study of John Lewis – one of the most respected and oldest retails in the UK established in 1864.

This empirical study has adopted a theory-building case study using qualitative data. It uses semi-structured interviews that were organised and managed by John Lewis Heritage Centre in Cookham. A total of 14 participants were involved in this study. We have used Nvivo.11 software to set the main themes and codes for this study framework.

This study identifies Balmer’s (2013) corporate heritage brand traits that are essential to be considered for the corporate heritage brands in the retailing industry to sustain their innovativeness and competitiveness. The findings of the case study informed the four dimensions of corporate heritage brand identity, which include price, quality, symbol and design. The findings are incorporated into a theoretical framework of corporate heritage brand identity traits.

The discussed traits of this study can help brand senior management to enhance their corporate heritage reputation and sustainability through maintaining these (four) traits over their brand, and inform their brand stakeholders about their brand heritage success.

This is one of the few attempts to develop a research framework of corporate heritage brand identity. This framework suggests four dimensions of corporate heritage brand identity traits including brand price, quality, design and symbol. This is one of the first attempts to study corporate heritage branding management traits in the retailing industry sector.

Since the late 1980s, brands have gained centre stage in marketing and in the managerial discourse. From having been a mere marker that identifies the producer or the origin of a product, the brand is today increasingly becoming the product that is consumed. For the corporation, the brand is conceptualised as the essence of the firm, its most crucial “asset”. In the literature, branding is described as a process of expressing core values through the use of persuasive stories. By questioning the conception of brands as corporately managed stories, the article aims to re‐conceptualise branding as a process of aesthetic expression, where the conventional distinctions between senders and receivers become blurred. The paper looks into how brands have become depicted in the branding literature, and thereafter discusses the narrative and pictorial modes of communication. On the basis of this, the article finally discusses how images are used and reused in the joint construction of brands, thus challenging the idea of brands as stories crafted and controlled by the corporation.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the key features of an identity standards manual and assess the differences in the rules used for applying the brand to both low‐ and high‐context cultures, companies selling consumer goods and those selling services, and multinational and local companies.

The methodology is based on the analysis of 341 identity standards manuals and on the analysis of three key features found in the manuals: contents, normative tone, and development.

The results divide the contents of the manual into two blocks: core and peripheral; and show that there are differences between the manuals of high‐ and low‐context cultures, companies selling consumer goods and those selling services, and multinational and local companies.

Type I errors could have been introduced and the conclusions must be regarded as tentative.

The findings show that applying the brand at an international level requires a strategy of adaptation which takes into account the particular nature of each culture.

This paper contributes to the debate on standardization/adaptation of the signs of visual identity (name, logo, and color) in global marketing, by studying the rules used in applying the brand and discussion of the documents which contain them.