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This paper aims to provide conceptual clarity on the different approaches of place branding in the literature. It discusses three main approaches and provides a new definition of place brands that acknowledges the full multi-sensory experience of place brands. This paper also elaborates brand management within the three approaches.

Conceptual paper

This study identifies three co-existing approaches of place branding and provides a definition of place brands for each of them. The first approach conceptualises place brands as symbolic constructs that identify and differentiate places from others. Brand symbols such as logos and slogans are central, assuming that brand meaning resides in them. The second approach views place brands as images and associations in the minds of target groups, whereby brands reside in individuals’ minds (the cognitive). This paper aligns with a third approach that views place brands as experiential, multi-sensory constructs. Brands invite not only mental representations in people’s minds but especially also multi-sensory embodied experiences. The authors thus define place brands as marketing systems that consist of dynamic performative assemblages of symbolic, discursive, institutional and material elements that selectively invite certain multi-sensory and embodied experiences of place by stakeholders and target groups.

This paper contributes to conceptual clarity by providing an analytical framework identifying three main approaches to place branding. The authors further reflect on the implications of each approach for brand management. This paper also builds on recent literatures to provide a new and contemporary definition of place brands as multi-sensory experiences that encompasses embodiment.

While brand purpose has gained traction in academia and industry, it overlaps with other socially-oriented branding concepts, generating confusion and criticism around what brand purpose is and how it should be implemented. This study aims to clarify conceptualisations of brand purpose and related concepts, developing a managerial framework for effective implementation and contributing a future research agenda for scholars.

The paper presents the results of a systematic literature review on brand purpose, exploring the current knowledge. A total of 202 studies from 75 journals were drawn from a wide range of databases and met the identified criteria relevant to brand purpose, published up to and including 2023. Full papers were empirically analysed using qualitative iterative thematic analysis to identify common and emerging themes and synthesise this into a framework.

Beyond identifying the diverse applications of brand purpose, the BEING framework is proposed. This acronym captures five principles of brand purpose: beyond profit, enduring commitment, integrated values, nurturing stakeholders and genuine action.

The BEING framework provides clear managerial guidance for implementing brand purpose, urging brand leaders to enact meaningful brand purpose and champion purpose within organisations.

As more brands pursue a higher purpose, this research elucidates the meaning of brand purpose and offers an actionable framework for brands to contribute to a better world.

This work examines the related branding concepts, clarifying the brand purpose concept and offering the BEING framework to articulate essential components of effective brand purpose.

This study aims to investigate the effects of sponsorship on organizational identification among employees of companies that sponsor individual athletes from the perspective of internal marketing.

An online survey was conducted in July 2021 targeting employees of Company A. Specifically, employees were invited to participate via email notifications sent through the company's intranet. To clarify the impact of company sponsorships for individual athletes on employee organizational identification, this study focused on the relationship between Company A and an athlete they support. Psychometric scales were used to measure the factors of the hypothetical model, such as sponsor fit and attitudes toward sponsorship. The analysis was conducted using IBM SPSS 28.0 and AMOS 25 Graphics, and the hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling.

We collected a total of 365 survey responses in two weeks. All the hypotheses in this study were supported, indicating that athlete identification and brand knowledge had a significant positive effect on perceived sponsor fit. In addition, attitudes toward the employer significantly have positive relationships with brand commitment and organizational identification. This study showed that perceived sponsor fit plays an important role in employee perceptions of sponsorship. Athlete endorsement is effective from an internal marketing perspective.

The limitation of this study is the selection of the research subject. Conducting the same survey targeting individual athletes with different characteristics may lead to discoveries about the impact of corporate sponsorship on employee organizational identification.

The practical implication of this study is that business executives should also use sponsorship for individual athletes as a means to unify and motivate their employees. In selecting athletes for sponsorship, it is necessary to select individuals who fit the company image. In this process, listening to employees' opinions may help select the most suitable athlete who matches the company's image.

Many studies conducted on sports sponsorship have focused on the impact on potential customers, from external marketing. Even in studies examining the effects of sports sponsorship on employees, the sponsored subjects are typically teams or events. Therefore, the originality of this study lies in examining the impact of athlete endorsement on the company's employees from the perspective of internal marketing.

This study investigates the UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy Network as a global spatial brand and explores the tensions that emerge when this global brand is appropriated locally.

This paper is based on case study research that uses critical discourse analysis to identify the implications of a transferable learning capacity.

This paper identifies three different types of tensions in place brand management that emerge during the local appropriation of global brands: tensions inherent in multi-scalarity, tensions associated with integrating governance and strategy-related tensions.

This study advances the theoretical understanding of the spatial complexity inherent in place brand management practices by focusing on the UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy Network as a global brand in a Scandinavian context.

This study aims to confirm the causal relationship between emotional brand attachment, brand love, and brand commitment, and then explain how these variables affect active engagement. In addition, it is to confirm the effect of brand prestige, brand consciousness, and brand trust on emotional brand attachment and to identify the moderating role of self-congruity in the causal relationship between these variables.

In this study, a survey was conducted targeting 320 consumers who have recently purchased luxury products or brands. In addition, structural equation model analysis (SEM) was used to test the research hypotheses raised in this study.

The results found that brand prestige and brand consciousness affect on emotional brand attachment. Emotional brand attachment had a significant effect on brand love and brand commitment. And brand love affect brand commitment and active engagement. Emotional brand attachment affects active engagement. Brand love was mediated in the relationship between emotional brand attachment and active engagement. Self-congruity was moderated in the relationship between brand prestige and emotional brand attachment. However, self-congruity was not moderated in the relation to brand consciousness, brand trust and emotional brand attachment.

This study has significance in that it identified the antecedent factors that cause consumers' emotional brand attachment and confirmed that they have differential effects depending on the degree of consumer self-congruity. In addition, this study is meaningful in that it confirmed the concept of the causal difference between attachment and brand love as consumers' emotional responses to luxury brands. However, the scope of this study was limited to offline stores excluding online purchases as a place of purchase for luxury brands. In a situation where the purchase of luxury brands is gradually increasing in various online environments, limiting the scope of the study to offline stores may have problems in generalizing the study. Therefore, in future research, we would like to propose a study on the relationship and influence between these variables by integrating all purchasing environments, such as offline and online.

The management implications of the results of this study are as follows. First, brand marketers and managers must suggest strategies to increase emotional attachment to customers who are satisfied with the brand and have a favorable brand attitude. After segmenting target customers and identifying their tendencies, behavioral characteristics, and preferred brands, emotional attachment can be strengthened by providing information about the brand to each segment and strengthening the brand image. Strategies like these can help target customers strengthen their emotional connection to a luxury brand, build positive attitudes toward the brand, and prevent them from switching to competing brands. Second, a strategy is needed to ensure that target customers have a strong emotional response to the company's luxury brand and become immersed in the brand. Target customers who have an affinity for the brand can strengthen their level of brand attachment and become immersed in the brand by allowing them to directly participate in brand activities through various advertising campaigns, events, and content. Third, you can strengthen your brand by developing a brand that fits the self-concept of your target customers. Brand marketers or managers can strengthen brand attachment by presenting a brand that fits the characteristics of each target customer and recognizing that the brand's status is relatively high compared to competing brands.

This study identified how consumers' brand engagement in a luxury brand environment is influenced by its components. In other words, the preceding factors for consumers' brand emotion were identified, and the influence of emotional brand attachment and brand love, which represent the consumer's emotional state that affects consumers' brand engagement, was investigated. The theoretical implications of the results of this study are as follows. First, Shahid et al. (2022) found that emotional attachment was expressed more strongly when emotional bonds were formed through relationship formation. Hwang and Kandampully (2012) found that emotional attachment and brand love are conceptually similar but differ in intensity. And Gómez-Suárez (2019) said that brand attachment is a prerequisite for brand love. As mentioned earlier, previous research has shown that emotional attachment and brand love differ depending on the consumer's emotional state. The results of this study showed that emotional brand attachment did not affect active participation, while brand love did. This means that active engagement is directly influenced by brand love rather than emotional attachment. Through these research results, it can be confirmed that even if consumers have similar brand emotional states, the impact on consumer behavior is different depending on the intensity of the emotional state. Therefore, in the consumer-brand relationship, the intensity of emotions arising from the interaction between the consumer and the brand is different, and only when brand emotions are at a high level, consumers engage in behavioral participation toward the brand. Second, Morris and Keltner (2000) found that consumers activate the integration of emotions in the decision-making process. Hwang and Kandampully (2012) found that love induces consumers to maintain a relationship with a brand, and that brand commitment increases when consumers feel intimacy and a strong emotional bond between themselves and the brand. Through these prior studies, it was confirmed that emotions play an important role in the consumer's decision-making process, and in particular, it was confirmed that maintaining close relationships with others induces emotional commitment to the object. In this study, brand loyalty was also found to have a positive effect on brand immersion and active participation. Therefore, consumers need to foster strong bonds with luxury brands to create brand love and strengthen their relationship with the brand, leading to brand commitment and active participation. Third, Ji et al. (2018) found that brand reputation has a positive effect on consumer attitudes and behaviors, including brand attachment, purchase intention, and brand loyalty. Casidy et al. (2015) found that consumers with high brand awareness are likely to have high brand preference and have favorable and positive brand attitudes due to their high brand knowledge. Previous research has shown that consumers' brand reputation and brand consciousness influence brand attachment.

This study dealt with a more comprehensive variable in the relationship between luxury brand factors as an antecedent variable of emotional brand attachment in luxury brand situations, and provided important evidence for the mediating effect of brand love, which was a limited emotional variable. In addition, additional implications for the moderating role of brand self-congruity on emotional brand attachment were suggested.

Drawing on the social identity theory (SIT), this study investigates the relationship between internal branding (IB), organizational identity (OI) and brand performance while considering OI as the linking apparatus of internal branding and brand performance. It also explores the moderating role of co-worker support in the relationship between OI and brand performance.

A sample of 919 frontline employees working in private banks in India was collected by using multi-stage sampling. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was utilized to examine the hypothesized relations. PROCESS macro for SPSS was used to test mediation and moderation effects.

The results reveal that all IB dimensions (internal brand communication, brand-oriented transformational leadership and brand-oriented HR activities) directly affect OI and indirectly affect brand performance. Additionally, no moderating effect of co-worker support is found.

The current study contributes to the existing literature by portraying IB as identity strengthening phenomenon and brand performance as identity-congruent behavior. It also reveals how social context influences brand performance and assists them in socially categorizing themselves.

The present study portrays a complete understanding of the dynamics between internal branding, organizational identity, and brand performance. The study also emphasizes the empirical examination of the potential mediation effect of organizational identity and the moderation effect of co-worker support.

This study aims to examine the influence of brand awareness on brand equity with the mediating role of brand association and perceived quality.

This research is applied in terms of the objective and descriptive survey in terms of methodology because its objective is to describe the studied conditions or phenomena and also the relationship between research variables that have been conducted in the field method.

The results explained that 53% of respondents are female and 47% of respondents are male. Most respondents are between 30 and 40 years old, and the youngest respondents are less than 30 years old. Most respondents were specialists, and the 134 respondents were subspecialists. The results explained that the significance level of the Kolmogorov–Smirnov test for research variables is less than 0.05 and has an abnormal distribution. The abnormality of the data in this study directed the authors to use PLS software to analyze the data.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, it is the first time that research is prepared to study the impact of these marketing parameters on dentists’ prescription behavior.

This study investigates the impact of open branding on consumer brand attitudes, as mediated by brand warmth and brand competence, and moderated by power distance belief.

This study employs two one-factor (brand strategy: open branding vs closed branding) between-subject experimental designs and a 2 × 2, namely (open branding vs closed branding) × (power distance belief: high vs low) between-subject experimental design to test the hypotheses.

The study indicates that open branding can enhance consumer brand attitudes, and that brand warmth and brand competence mediate the impact of open branding on consumer brand attitudes. Furthermore, power distance beliefs (PDB) moderated these relationships. Specifically, the impact of open branding on consumers brand attitudes is stronger for consumers with low PDB than for those with high PDB.

Brand managers should consider adopting an open branding strategy to enhance consumers brand attitudes when encountering consumers’ unauthorized use of brand-related intellectual property. Additionally, when implementing an open-branding strategy, brand managers should use appropriate language to enhance consumers’ perceptions of brand warmth and brand competence.

This study contributes to the interactive marketing literature by empirically examining the impact of open branding on consumer brand attitudes. Furthermore, it investigates the underlying mechanism of how and the boundary conditions when open branding increases consumer brand attitudes, enriching the current knowledge.

This study aims to explore how a postmodern tribe enacts and re-interprets ideologies as a part of consumers’ collective experience, to enhance our understanding of consumer communities in conjunction with ideological capacities.

The community of “presenteers” is conceptualized as a self-organized tribe with heterogeneous components that generate capacities to act. Netnographic observation was conducted on 18 presenteer accounts and lasted around six months. Real-time data were collected by taking screenshots of the posts and stories that these users created and publicly shared. Data were analysed by adopting assemblage theory, combining inductive and deductive approaches. Firstly, a qualitative visual-textual content analysis of the tribe’s defining components was conducted. Then, the process continued with the thematic analysis of the ideological underpinnings of the tribe’s enactments.

Findings shed light on the ways in which consumer communities interpret the entanglement of religious, political, and cultural ideologies in shaping their experiences. In the case of the presenteers tribe, findings reflect a novel ideological interplay between neo-Ottomanism, post-feminism and consumerism.

The study offers a deep dive into a unique tribe that is being organized around the consumer-created practice of “presenteering” and investigates consumer communalization in alignment with the ideological turn in culture-oriented interpretative research on consumers, consumption, and markets. This exploration helps to bridge the research on the communalization of consumers with the recent discussions of ideology in the postmodern market.

The study offers a deep dive into a unique tribe that is being organized around the consumer-created practice of “presenteering” and investigates consumer communalization in alignment with the ideological turn in culture-oriented interpretative research on consumers, consumption, and markets. This exploration helps to bridge the research on the communalization of consumers with the recent discussions of ideology in the postmodern market.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the differences in employer branding between the companies that participate and those that do not participate in employer ranking.

Quantitative data were collected through a survey from 188 companies operating on the Russian labour market. Descriptive statistics, frequency analysis, correlation analysis and multivariate analysis of variance were used to analyse the collected data.

The findings revealed specific profiles of the companies that participated and did not participate in employer ranking. Companies differed in their employer branding orientation, internal branding, employer branding strategy, employer branding programmes and employer branding communications tasks. At the same time, brand orientation did not differ between participants and non-participants of employer ranking.

This study integrates the employer brand equity theory and the signalling theory to better explain the differences between participants and non-participants of employer ranking.